


Addicted To You

by DeceitfulHonesty



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bad Girl!Skye, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Hydra!Skye, Kidnapping, Maybe more than Canon-Typical Violence, Slow Burn, canon AU, mentions of gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-05-15 07:01:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 26,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5776090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeceitfulHonesty/pseuds/DeceitfulHonesty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A raid at the SHIELD lab where she was working, leaves Jemma in the hands of her greatest enemies. As she tries to stay alive, Jemma finds herself drawn to someone who destroys all her expectations of Hydra: a specialist who calls herself Skye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Let Down My Guard

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my new AU! This particular fic was inspired by this lovely playlist (http://8tracks.com/nayakatic/addicted-to-you), which I listened to about 30 times before even starting to write and then another 20 while writing this.  
> A bit of info on this AU: Ward and Skye were never on the Bus team, FitzSimmons hasn't been moved to the Bus team yet, but Coulson's the Director of SHIELD. I meant to make it more of a pre-Season 1 AU, but I'm in love with Bobbi Morse so she had to be in there and well...stuff happened.  
> Also, there are no Inhumans in this verse and there is a reason Skye is called Skye. All will be revealed...  
> So enjoy!

“If you just increase the amount of dendrotoxin, we could—”

  
“We’ve been over this, Fitz. It would—”

  
“I know, I know. Upset the balance of the blah blah blah,” Fitz replied, waving Jemma off. They had had this argument at least five times the past week. Something was still not working right on their latest collaboration, and it was starting to frustrate both of them.   
Jemma sighed. “I’ll keep working on a more concentrated formula for the dendrotoxin, but so far, all of my simulations have proven fatal to the subjects. Since regular bullets have been around for many years and seem to be doing that job just fine, we don’t need to develop something that can do the same thing.”

  
“I know. I could probably do some more development on the shell casings as well and see if I can get rid of any extra weight,” Fitz responded.

  
“That’s the spirit,” Jemma encouraged with a smile.

  
“Well, good. If that’s all we have for today, I’m gonna head home. I’ve, uh...got some packing and...things to do,” Fitz muttered.

  
Jemma rolled her eyes. “Fitz, you don’t have to lie. We’re not being transferred for another week and I know for a fact you don’t pack for anything until the night before. It’s perfectly alright to admit you don’t like the lab.”

  
“It’s not—Okay, but why do you all have to leave dead things lying around? It’s just unsanitary,” Fitz complained.

  
Jemma heard footsteps enter the lab and turned around to find Bobbi, grabbing a lab coat off the coat rack by the door.

  
“Hey, Fitz,” she greeted, “Haven’t seen you around much. Are you here to help with our next experiment?”

  
“He was just leaving actually,” Jemma stated, saving Fitz from being recruited for the human trials on their experimental drug. Fitz took the cue and offered a quick wave before slipping out of the lab and down the hall. As he left, Jemma noticed a small group of people walking the opposite direction, all in SHIELD lab coats and whom she had never seen.

  
Jemma’s eyes landed on the woman at the front of the group. She had short, dark hair that was pinned back from her face and a pair of thick framed glasses on. She glanced into the lab as her group passed by the door and her eyes landed on Jemma. She gave her a small smirk and a wink before passing the door and disappearing down the hall.

  
“Who were they?” Jemma asked, once she was sure they were out of range.

  
Bobbi frowned slightly. “Weaver says they’re researchers from one of the other labs just coming to check out our facilities. I don’t know, though. Something about them skeeves me out.”

  
Jemma hummed in agreement, though she didn’t really notice anyone but the woman in front. Some spy she was. Bobbi suddenly shoved off the desk she was leaning on.

  
“I’m gonna go see what I can find out about them. Something doesn’t feel right,” she announced. Before Jemma could respond, she had swept from the room leaving Jemma alone with her work. Jemma sighed. At least it was easier to get work done without all the distractions. She bent back over her microscope, hoping this sample would provide a solution to their dendrotoxin problem.

  
A few minutes passed and Jemma heard a clunk and some beeping that prompted her to look up from her slides. In the hallway right outside the lab, someone was poking around in one of the hidden wall panels. They were wearing a lab coat, so they obviously weren’t from maintenance. Jemma was just wondering whether she should report this to someone when the person pulled something from the computer and turned around.

  
It was the mysterious woman from before, alone this time. She saw Jemma staring at her and her eyes went wide, knowing that she had been caught.

  
That’s when the gunfire started.

  
The woman somersaulted forward into the cover of the lab. Jemma lurched off her stool, searching for cover and something she could use as a weapon.

  
“You need to come with me now. It’s not safe,” the woman shouted, reaching a hand towards Jemma.

  
“What?”

  
One second Jemma was getting ready to report this woman for suspicious conduct, and the next she was trying to save her life? The gunfire sounded like it was getting closer, along with incoherent shouting.

  
“I don’t have time to explain! We need to go!” the woman demanded frantically, “Back exit, now!”

  
The woman grabbed Jemma by the wrist and dragged her towards the emergency exit at the back of the lab. They burst through the doors and found themselves in a dusty stairwell.

  
“Up to the roof!”

  
Jemma paused. “But, shouldn’t we get to the ground—”

  
“There’s an extraction on the roof. Go!”

  
Jemma was utterly confused, but there wasn’t time to stop and weight her options. Whoever was shooting up the building seemed to be closing in on the lab. The woman whipped out a hand gun and started to return fire. Jemma turned and sprinted up the stairs for the roof.

  
The woman was only a few steps behind her as they sprinted up the stairs to the top floor. Jemma felt like her lungs were about to burst. Thank god for adrenaline or she wouldn’t have made it this far.

  
They crashed through the door to the roof and, as the woman had promised, there was a running quinjet waiting with the hatch open and several men standing inside waving them forward. The woman sprinted ahead and gestured for them to start taking off. The wheels squeaked slightly as the turbines picked up and lifted the plane a few inches off the ground.

  
The woman hopped onto the ramp and held out a hand to Jemma. Jemma started to reach towards her, when she heard someone calling her name.

  
“Simmons! Simmons, don’t!”

  
Jemma spun around. Bobbi stood there covered in a layer of dust and her lab coat, which had been pristine half an hour ago, was now splattered with blood. She sprinted towards the quinjet screaming, “Jemma, stop!”

  
“Okay, time to go,” a voice said into Jemma’s ear. Suddenly, an arm was wrapped around her middle, hauling her from her feet, and she was roughly dragged inside the plane and tossed on the floor. Her back hit the floor hard, knocking the wind out of her. She heard gunfire, pushed herself up onto her elbows, and saw the men in the plane firing onto the roof where Bobbi had just been standing.

  
“What are you doing? She’s not—”

  
Jemma cut herself off and her blood ran cold. On the back of the men’s uniforms was the familiar red skull-and-tentacles logo of Hydra. The ramp started to close and she could feel the plane taking off. Even if she was a highly trained field agent (which she wasn’t), there was no way Jemma was fighting off six armed Hydra agents and getting off this plane in one piece.

  
“What the hell is this?” one of the men demanded, gesturing to Jemma. If she wasn’t fearing for her life, Jemma would be offended. “This was supposed to be a standard intel gathering mission, not a kidnapping.”

  
“So I went off book a bit. Who cares?” the woman piped up from the other side of the plane. She had shed her glasses and stolen lab coat and was shaking out her short hair.

  
“The boss is going to care,” the man retorted.

  
“The boss can suck it,” the woman snapped back, “Besides, he likes going off book.”

  
She turned her attention back to Jemma, who couldn’t bring herself to move off the floor. She strolled towards her, the heavy thuds of her boots echoing off the metal interior of the plane. Jemma tried not to flinch away as the woman crouched down beside her and gave her a wicked grin.

  
“I’m Skye, by the way. Welcome to Hydra.”


	2. It's Just Forever

Skye watched the woman on the monitors, trying to block out Ward as he reamed her. The woman was surprisingly calm for someone who had just been kidnapped. They probably didn’t need to handcuff her to the table, though.

  
“—you know how SHIELD is. They’ll be tracking our asses down looking for her! If all we took was a flash drive with some files on it, they wouldn’t have cared, but now…” Ward gestured to the monitors.

  
“Yeah, yeah. Shoulda, woulda, coulda,” Skye waved him off.

  
“Why did you really bring her?” Ward demanded, stepping into her personal space. Skye chose to glare at him silently. She didn’t need to give a reason for all her actions. Ward took her silence as an answer itself.

  
“Oh, I see,” he huffed out a humorless laugh, “She got in the way and you couldn’t bring yourself to take care of her.”

  
Skye rolled her eyes and snapped, “I saw an unarmed scientist in a level six SHIELD lab. Yeah, she got in the way, but she could be useful.”

  
“Whitehall is not going to find a SHIELD scientist useful, Skye,” Ward reasoned.

  
“He would if she was a Hydra scientist.”

  
Ward snorted. “You know how SHIELD agents are. There is no way one of theirs is going to be swayed to Hydra.”

  
Skye smirked. “Is that a challenge I hear?”

  
Ward raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

  
“Care to make this interesting?” Skye asked.

  
“Make what interesting?”

  
“I think I can get her to join the dark side,” Skye explained.

  
“Definitely not happening if you’re going to call it ‘the dark side.’”

  
“Loser buys dinner?”

  
Ward sighed loudly. “Fine. If nothing else, we might be able to get more intel on SHIELD. If you can get her to join up with Hydra, I’ll buy the most expensive steak dinner I can find. But if not, you buy dinner, we take her up to Whitehall, and—”

  
“Yeah, I know what happens,” Skye interrupted. She still shuddered every time the brainwashing thing was brought up. She stuck a hand out to Ward, “Deal.”

  
He took her hand and shook it. “When do you start?”

  
Skye smirked. “Why not right now?” She unzipped her uniform to show off some cleavage and checked her reflection in one of the monitors.

  
Ward snorted behind her. “You really think that’s going to work on _her_?”

  
“What’s that you always say? I’m everyone’s type,” Skye quipped. She slapped him on the back (only because she knew he hated it) and marched into the interrogation room the scientist was being held in.

  
As soon as the door opened, Skye saw the scientist stiffen in her chair. She held up her hands in surrender and put on a placating expression.

  
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe now,” Skye assured the woman, taking the chair across from her.

  
The scientist frowned at her. “I was perfectly safe before getting kidnapped,” she snapped.

  
“Yeah, all the gunfire and explosions really scream ‘safe’ to me,” Skye retorted, “You’re welcome.”

  
The woman chose not to respond. She must have been better trained than Skye originally thought. Her brown eyes bored into Skye’s, refusing to flinch. Skye couldn’t help but think that her eyes were very pretty. Even though they looked like they wanted to melt her face off at the moment.

  
“Why am I here?” she demanded.

  
Skye sighed. “I saw someone stuck in a crappy situation and I couldn’t have it on my conscience to leave them there. And I’m not just talking about all the gunfire, because that was partially our fault. I just saw an opportunity to save someone from SHIELD and—”

  
“You seem to be forgetting that SHIELD are the good guys in this scenario,” the woman snapped back. She was sassy. Skye liked that.  
Skye chuckled humorlessly. “I forgot how good SHIELD was at indoctrinating their agents.”

  
Though she tried to hide it, Skye saw the slight furrow of the woman’s brow in confusion. She leaned forward on the desk, making sure to stick out her chest a bit more than necessary. She internally cheered in triumph when she saw the woman’s eyes flicker downward briefly.

  
“SHIELD likes to pretend they’re the good guys and make everyone else out to be the enemies,” Skye explained, “Whereas, Hydra lets their actions speak for themselves. You can’t tell me you’ve never gotten orders that made you question that you were doing the right thing.”

  
A slight flicker of recognition in the woman’s eyes was all Skye needed to continue. “Maybe...excessive measures to neutralize a threat? Or risking agents’ lives to satisfy personal grudges? Anything like that?”

  
The woman still refused to break eye contact, but she pressed her lips together into a hard line. Bingo.

  
Skye leaned back in her chair. “SHIELD loves to give people a common enemy to fight and they decided on Hydra—”

  
“You forget the part where your organization was founded by a psychotic Nazi,” the woman accused.

  
Skye just shrugged. “Everyone had a shaky history during World War II. Heck, the U.S. was all on board with the eugenics business long before the Nazis. But we’ve moved past that history now.”

  
The woman scoffed and rolled her eyes.

  
“I’m serious. Hydra is about much bigger and better things now, and we don’t hide behind ‘the greater good’ to achieve them. We’re not the bad guys, it’s just about the perspective,” Skye finished. She put as much sincerity on her face as she could, since she could see the woman scanning her. The woman didn’t seem entirely convinced, but Skye could recognize the glimmer of doubt in her eyes.

  
“So you’ve ‘rescued me from SHIELD.’ Now what?” the woman huffed.

  
Skye shrugged again. “That’s up to you. We’d like to put you to work in our Research and Development lab. We know that SHIELD doesn’t give level six clearance to just anyone, so you must be pretty special. We’ll set you up in an apartment in the building above the lab, all expenses paid. You’ll have access to everything you need, with some supervision at first, of course.”

  
“And if I refuse?”

  
“Well, you’ll still get set up in an apartment, but it’ll be a lot more boring,” Skye replied, “Plus, your security would be a lot more strict.”  
“So...you’re not going to kill me?” the woman tentatively asked. While that would be the standard protocol for the situation, Skye wasn’t going to tell her that.

  
“Why would we rescue you just to kill you?” Skye asked innocently.

  
Now Skye could really see the wheels turning in her head. A light knock at the door startled both of them. Ward poked his head in the door and gestured for Skye to come out. She tossed a ‘one more minute’ gesture at him and turned back to the scientist.

  
“I’ll give you some time to think about it. Do you have a name?” Skye asked.

  
The woman hesitated.

  
“I mean, I could just make up something to call you. Of course, Agent Tin Man out there would probably tell you that’s a bad idea,” Skye gestured to the door where Ward had been.

  
The woman’s lips quirked into something that could almost be considered a smile. “Jemma. Jemma Simmons,” she replied quietly.  
Skye mentally cheered at her success and flashed the woman—Jemma— a dazzling smile. “Nice to officially meet you Jemma Simmons. I’ll be back in a few,” She reached in her pocket and pulled out the small key to the handcuffs around Jemma’s wrists and placed it on the table in front of her, “You probably don’t need those anymore.”

  
Skye turned on her heels and sauntered to the door. She knocked lightly to have someone let her out and flashed Jemma another small smile before closing the door behind her.

  
Ward stood in front of the monitors with his arms crossed, but a smirk on his face. “Not gonna lie, that was good,” he praised.  
“Pfft. That was nothing,” Skye said, waving him off, “Just planting a tiny seed of doubt and letting it simmer for a few minutes.”

  
“Plus, giving up some personal information. You are terrible at giving nicknames,” Ward teased.

  
“Rude,” Skye scolded, smacking him lightly in the shoulder, “So what did I get pulled out for?”

  
“Bakshi’s back and he wants a word about your last mission,” Ward said, sobering up.

  
Skye groaned. “This’ll be fun. See what you can find on Jemma Simmons while I’m gone.”

  
She turned to head up to Bakshi’s office, trying to decide how she would explain recruiting Simmons to him. She spun to face Ward again.

  
“Oh, and one more thing,” she shouted down the hall, “Start looking up steakhouses now.”

  
Ward gave her the finger and turned back to the computer. Skye smirked and marched up to her meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohoho the plot thickens! Will Skye succeed in turning Jemma to the dark side? Will Jemma even get back to SHIELD? Stay tuned to find out!  
> Also I hate this chapter, just because writing this Hydra apologist crap made me actually sick. Bleh. But it had to be done.  
> I'm going to try to keep a semi-regular posting schedule going for this story (like every 2-4 days or so) since I already have 3 more chapters done, but I don't wanna rush it in case I suddenly get lazy and decide not to write for a week.  
> Thanks for reading! And check out my writing tumblr sad-trash-writing


	3. Lately I've Been Losing Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma starts to settle in to her new (hopefully temporary) situation

The apartment they assigned Jemma was surprisingly nice. It was a bit small, but it was fully furnished, had a full kitchen, and even had a laundry room. Not that she had much laundry to do at the moment. She didn’t really pack a bag for her kidnapping.

  
The apartments for all the scientists and technicians (at least the ones that Hydra wanted to keep a close eye on) were in the same building as the lab and on the top few floors. After she was escorted to hers, the first thing Jemma did was make a list of all the hidden cameras and bugs she saw. She knew Hydra would not be happy with her removing them, but she liked to know where things were.  
She did have a clear view of the street below, but it didn’t look familiar and they were too high up to read any of the street signs. She could at least watch the sunrise in the mornings and see the outside world.

  
A slight knock on her door pulled Jemma out of her thoughts. She peered through the peephole to find Skye standing there, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. She cracked the door open slightly.

  
“Yes?”

  
Skye smiled. “Hey, Simmons. I just wanted to see how you were settling in. Can I come in?”

  
Jemma hesitated a moment, but she figured if the agent wanted to hurt her, she would have done so already. She opened the door wider and stepped aside for Skye to enter.

  
“You got one of the nice ones,” Skye commented, looking around the small living room, “You’ve even got a nice view of Second Street!”

  
Second Street. Of course it would something that generic.

  
“To answer your question, I’m settling in quite nicely. Unpacking is really easy when you have nothing to unpack,” Jemma stated, a bit more accusatory than originally intended.

  
Skye had the audacity to look abashed. “Hopefully by the end of the week, they’ll get your clearance level worked out, so we can go out and get some personal things. Ya know, clothes, decorations, specific groceries. Most of your general groceries will be delivered every week, but if there’s anything special you want, we’ll have to get it ourselves.

  
“I thought I wasn’t allowed to leave,” Jemma stated.

  
“You can if you have a high level agent sign you out and escort you,” Skye said with a smirk, “That would be me.”

  
Jemma narrowed her eyes at Skye. “Why are you being so nice to me?” she blurted.

  
“Well, I got you into this situation. The least I can do is make your transition as painless as possible,” Skye replied, “Plus, you’re cute when you blush and you seem to do that a lot.”

  
Jemma cursed the flush she could feel rising to her face. The look on Skye’s face told Jemma that she noticed.

  
“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Skye turned towards the door, “Don’t forget about orientation at 9 on Monday. Oh, and we have the premium cable package, so we get all the good channels.”

  
The door clicked closed behind her. Jemma groaned. She always thought she knew what Hydra stood for, but then this one woman came in and turned all her expectations around. She supposed, statistically, there was no way that every Hydra agent was a sociopath, but she didn’t expect some of them to be so...nice.

  
And sure, Director Coulson occasionally made some questionable decisions, but Jemma couldn’t believe the things Skye was trying to tell her about SHIELD. Somewhere in the back of Jemma’s mind, though, there was a tiny flicker of doubt about everything she had ever thought true. Jemma groaned again and flopped down on her (surprisingly comfortable) couch.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The first thing Jemma learned about her new position was that her boss was a condescending jerk. Mr. Atticus (as he insisted upon being called) was a rather slight, hipster-looking man who wore thick-rimmed glasses that looked like he had stolen them from a 3D movie. He had a habit of pushing his glasses up his once when he was trying to correct her work, usually with incorrect assessments. She was almost certain that he didn’t even have any kind of degree in biochemistry, but he insisted on hovering around everyone in the lab and questioning their work in the most irritating way. By the end of the first day, Jemma wanted to smash a beaker over his head.  
It wasn’t until the end of the first week that Jemma saw Skye again. Jemma was setting up a DNA comparison for her current project when she heard hushed whispers and the rest of the lab technicians shuffling around. The glass walls that separated the lab from the hallway allowed Jemma to see everyone coming into or leaving the lab.

  
She glanced up from her table to see Skye striding down the hall with two burly operations officers flanking her. Everyone in the lab sat up straighter as the trio walked by.

  
Skye’s eyes seemed to search the lab for a moment, before landing on Jemma. She offered a bright smile and wave to Jemma and then continued into Mr. Atticus’s office.

  
“Do you know her?” a woman’s voice asked from behind Jemma.

  
She jumped slightly. One of the lab technicians, who had been avoiding Jemma since she arrived, was suddenly leaning across Jemma’s table with wide eyes.

  
“Um...sort of. She ki—recruited me,” Jemma replied, “Why?”

  
The woman looked awed for a moment and breathed out a ‘wow.’

  
“Skye’s one of the best ops agents we have. She’s usually off on assignments somewhere so we rarely see her around. They say she once went toe-to-toe with The Cavalry and survived.”

  
Jemma hummed slightly in acknowledgement. May would not appreciate her nickname being used around Hydra. Then again, May wouldn’t approve of anything involving Hydra. Jemma was a bit astonished by the information that Skye had fought May, though. She had never seen Skye in action, but she knew exactly how lethal May could be.

  
Jemma peered over at Atticus’s office. His office was entirely glass as well, which made spying on their conversation easy. Skye slouched in the chair across from him, looking bored as she spoke.

  
Even in the week Jemma had been there, she had learned to recognize Atticus’s posture when he was using his condescending tone. He held up a hand to silence whatever Skye was saying and started gesturing exaggeratedly, probably rambling about how complicated these analyses everyone was working on were. If Jemma knew Atticus, he was probably insulting Skye’s intelligence while making excuses about why his work was late when everyone else was on time.

  
Judging by Skye’s face, she wasn’t too pleased about it. Skye’s arms were crossed tightly across her chest and she glared in Mr. Atticus’s direction like she was trying to set him on fire with her gaze. Atticus appeared not to notice. He just kept pushing his glasses up his nose and waving his hands around to illustrate his point.

  
Skye stood up roughly like she was about to leave. Jemma assumed the conversation was over and she didn’t want to get caught leering at their meeting, so she turned back to her work.

  
A sudden slam made everyone in the lab jump. In the second since Jemma had looked away, Skye had grabbed Atticus by the back of the head and slammed his face into the desk. She fisted her hands into his hair and appeared to be growling something into his ear, while blood streamed from his nose. She finally released him and he curled in on himself, nodding frantically to whatever she was telling him.

  
Jemma tore her gaze away from the scene. The other lab technician had slunk back to her own desk and bent her head back over her project. Jemma heard the door to Atticus’s office slide open and closed again, and Skye stormed down the hall she had come from with her two associates scurrying to keep up.

  
Jemma felt like her heart was in her throat. She knew it was stupid to think that Hydra wasn’t Hydra anymore. It was especially stupid to think that Skye was somehow not an evil Hydra agent. Seeing this side of her startled Jemma, though. She seemed so...normal every time she had been around Jemma.

  
Atticus’s whimpering jerked Jemma out of her thoughts and she jogged over to help stop the bleeding from his nose.


	4. Live Fast, Die Young, Bad Girls Do It Well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma and Skye are approved for a simple supply run, but things don't go according to plan.

“Hey!”

  
Skye’s voice from behind Jemma made her lurch. She was really starting to get irritated with how often that happened. She was a spy; she should be more observant.

  
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Skye assured.

  
Jemma didn’t look up from her work. “You didn’t scare me, you just startled me.”

  
“Aren’t those basically the same thing?”

  
“‘Startled’ means that you just surprised me because I wasn’t expecting you. ‘Scared’ implies that there’s something about you that frightens me,” Jemma explained, glancing up at Skye with a challenge in her eyes. Jemma wasn’t suddenly going to be afraid just because of that display with Atticus a few days ago.

  
Surprisingly, Skye looked relieved to hear that.

  
“Okay then,” she leaned into Jemma’s personal space and whispered, “Quick question: Are the techies in here always so shifty?”  
Jemma glanced around the lab. Usually, the rest of the lab techs were chatting back and forth across the lab and generally at ease. Today, they seemed exceptionally quiet and tense and had their eyes dutifully trained on their own desks.

  
Jemma smirked. “I believe it’s because you’re something of a celebrity down here.”

  
“Huh,” Skye said, with a pleased smile, “So do you get special treatment for hanging out with me?”

  
Jemma could hardly call the times they had spoken as ‘hanging out.’ “Did you come here for something specific?” Jemma tersely asked. Despite her assurances, the Atticus incident reminded Jemma to be wary of getting too close to anyone.

  
“Oh yeah. I came down here to give you some good news,” Skye said. She fished in her pocket and pulled out a small ID card on a keyring, “Guess who got you approved for a day trip?”

  
Skye’s childlike excitement was a bit unnerving. Jemma wasn’t sure she wanted to spend a whole day alone with her. Still, there were some things that she would like to get for her sparse apartment, since it seemed she wasn’t likely to leave anytime soon.

  
Skye leaned in conspiratorially. “Maybe, if you’re really nice to me, we can stay out past the five o’clock curfew,” she whispered with a smile.

  
Jemma steeled herself. She was stuck in Hydra for the time being; she was going to have to play nice with her coworkers for now.   
She gave Skye a small smile. “What exactly did you have in mind?”

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
Jemma tried her hardest to relax as they walked down the street. She didn’t want to be too obvious that she was trying to gather information on where they were, but she had to know. Not that it would help her too much, as Hydra had confiscated her cell phone and any other means of contacting anyone.

  
Skye was disturbingly easy to be around, in spite of Jemma’s reservations. She led the way from their office to the grocery store down the street, chatting amicably about the TV show she was currently watching. When they got to the grocery store, Skye insisted on just making a list of all the things Jemma wanted. She assured her that someone would get them all on the next trip so they wouldn’t have to carry them all day.

  
Skye also made them stop at a nice little deli for lunch and they grabbed some ice cream on the way to their next stop. Jemma could almost pretend that she was just enjoying a day out with a new friend at times. However, occasional glimpses of the handgun tucked into Skye’s pants was enough to remind her of the reality of her situation.

  
She was only half-tuned into what Skye was saying, when she noticed her quiet down suddenly. Jemma looked up from her ice cream to see what was the matter and noticed Skye looking slightly tense.

  
“Don’t panic, but I think we have a tail,” she muttered.

  
“What? Who…” Jemma instinctively tried to glance behind them.

  
“Don’t look!” Skye whispered, “I’m almost positive it’s one of ours, but it’s still annoying.”

  
Jemma frowned. “Why would one of your men—”

  
“Our men,” Skye reminded her.

  
Shoot. Jemma’s slip ups would be the death of her. “Right, Our men. Why would one of our men be tailing us?”

  
Skye glanced around the street with forced nonchalance. “I’m, uh...not exactly well known for listening to the protocols around the office,” she admitted, “And they probably want to make sure that I can keep track of you on my own.”

  
“Really?” Jemma asked in disbelief.

  
Skye shrugged. “We really don’t know what kind of training you have, so they’re just being cautious. But, no offense, I think I can handle you.” She shot Jemma a wink. “We still should try to lose them.”

  
“Wait, why? If they just want to make sure we’re following the rules, shouldn’t we just keep doing what we’re doing?” Jemma wondered.   
“I’m not a fan of being babysat,” Skye grumbled. “Plus, where’s the fun in following the rules?”

  
Jemma huffed, “Just because you can get away with all these bad girl shenanigans, doesn’t mean I can. I’m new, I’m probably on their watch list already.”

  
Skye smiled. “You can just say I made you do it. We’re coming up on an alley in about 200 feet. When I say go, make a hard right and run down the alley.”

  
Apparently, Jemma wasn’t going to have a choice. Her heart started racing before she even started running. They reached the alley Skye indicated and Jemma prayed to whatever was listening that this little stunt didn’t get her shot. She wondered for half a moment if she should try to use this as an opportunity to escape, before seeing the two men in dark suits who were likely their shadows and almost definitely had guns. Plus, she was sure Skye could keep up with her.

  
They had nearly passed the alley when Skye muttered “Go,” and nudged Jemma towards the alley. She took off and ran as far down the alley as she could. She reached the end, where the alley forked into two directions and skidded to a stop. A hand grabbed hers and she almost pulled away, but saw that it was Skye who pulled her to the right.

  
This alley was blocked off by a high wooden fence with trash cans piled against it. This didn’t seem to daunt Skye. She released Jemma’s hand and ran headlong towards the fence, vaulting off a trash can, pulling herself up, and swinging a leg over the fence. She reached a hand down for Jemma and pulled her over the fence once she followed Skye onto the trash cans. They hopped down the other side, took another turn, and darted across a small street to another alleyway.

  
Skye slid up to the wall of one of the buildings towering around them and peered around the corner before jerking back.

  
“Shit,” she muttered. Jemma assumed that meant their evasive maneuvers hadn’t worked.

  
“Maybe we should ju—”

  
Jemma’s suggestion was cut off by hands gripping the side of her face and warm lips suddenly pressing into hers. She heard a squeak of surprise escape from her throat. She was so startled that her brain wasn’t even forming proper thoughts, just a series of question marks. Her motor skills seemed to have taken a holiday as well, because she could feel her hands floating uselessly by her sides, not sure what to do in this situation.

  
Before her brain could catch up, the touch was gone and Skye was peering over Jemma’s shoulder.

  
“Alright, I think we’ve lost them for now,” she decided.

  
Jemma gaped. “What—What the hell was that?” Jemma shouted, shoving Skye hard away from her.

  
“The classic ‘public displays of affection make people uncomfortable’ trick. I’m really surprised that worked, actually,” Skye remarked, “What? Was is that terrible?”

  
Not the word Jemma would use to describe it. Even though she _should_. “You could have given me a little warning,” she hissed.

  
“There wasn’t exactly time to discuss a plan,” Skye pointed out, “Just don’t go having a gay panic on me or something.”

  
Jemma rolled her eyes. “Not likely,” she mumbled under her breath.

  
Skye searched around the corner once more. “Come on, I think we’re clear. See? Bad girl shenanigans can be fun.”

  
Jemma chose not to respond as she followed Skye out of the alley because she was unsure which ‘shenanigans‘ she was talking about.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
They finished up their errands without further incidents. Their last stop was a small thrift store, so Jemma could replace some of her wardrobe. Skye assured her that they could go anywhere to buy clothes because of her ‘company credit card with no limit,’ but Jemma just wanted to grab a few handfuls of shirts and get back to her apartment.

  
Skye continued to talk amicably about anything to fill the silence as they walked back to the building. She checked Jemma back into the building at the desk and followed her to the elevator, before handing Jemma the remainder of her bags.

  
“Are you not going up?” Jemma asked.

  
“Uh, no. I have a place off site,” Skye replied awkwardly.

  
“Ah.” Of course one of their top agents wouldn’t need to be supervised constantly. “Before you go, I have a question for you.”

  
“Shoot.”

  
“Is this a standard policy here? Being so friendly to the new recruits?” Jemma inquired.

  
Skye smiled sheepishly. “Well, not really. Technically, I am supposed to be checking in once in awhile to see if you’re fitting in with Hydra’s philosophy.”

  
Jemma gulped. She had a feeling she wasn’t passing that test.

  
“But, you’re fun to hang out with, so I’m going above and beyond the call of duty, I guess,” Skye continued.

  
Just then, the elevator dinged its arrival.

  
“Well, I appreciate it,” Jemma said, backing into the elevator. Skye just gave her a small wave as the doors started to close.

  
Jemma waited until the elevator started moving up to her floor before she groaned and leaned back against the wall. Jemma swore her lips were still tingling from the encounter in the alley. There was no way she could let herself get attached. To Skye. The Hydra agent.   
She wondered how long it would take her team to track down Hydra to here, or if they would. Hydra was very good at covering their tracks when it came to their bases and SHIELD had had very little luck tracking down their smaller ones like this one.

  
This might be her life now. Working with Hydra forever. Jemma pictured Skye for a moment, bright smile and a mischievous twinkle in her eye and wondered, would that be so bad?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. Almost forgot to update this one with all the other things I've been working on. But here it is!  
> Check out my writing blog if you want more Skimmons! (that seems to be all I can write these days): sad-trash-writing


	5. You Came Into My Crazy World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma gets sent on a dangerous mission to test her skills and loyalty to Hydra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a head up, there's quite a few mentions of gore and guts and such so if that's not your speed....sorry yo.

“So how’s your pet project going?” Ward asked from across the lounge. Skye was concentrating on the TV, playing Assassin’s Creed, while Ward meticulously arranged a sandwich in the small kitchen.

  
“My what now?” Skye asked, not taking her eyes off the TV.

  
“Converting the SHIELD scientist,” he clarified, “Ready to give up on that venture yet?”

  
Skye scoffed. “Hell no. It’s going great.”

  
“Really,” Ward muttered in disbelief, “So she’s on board with our unique research methods?”

  
Skye froze momentarily. “I’m working on getting her comfortable with the organization as a whole first,” she replied. Because Ward was distracting her, she miscalculated her Leap of Faith and her character splattered on the animated cobblestones beside the hay bale she was aiming for. She mumbled a curse as the game restarted at the last checkpoint.

  
“So ‘the organization as a whole’ spends all its time flirting with her in the lab?” Ward asked, with an accusing tone.

  
“Hey! I don’t question your methods. A personal connection will make someone more likely to be loyal to an organization. It’s not my fault you don’t have a friendly bone in your body,” Skye snapped. Just for that comment, Skye went out of her way to stab one of the British soldiers that looked a lot like Ward.

  
“No need to turn this into a personal attack, I was just making an observation,” Ward defended. He had finally finished his sandwich and came over to sit on the couch beside Skye. She was very tempted to reach out and flick it, just to mess up his hard work, but she now had to run away from the rest of the British soldiers who were pissed that she had just stabbed one of their own. “I heard about your little stunt on your day trip.”

  
“So, were you the one who assigned me a tail? You know I don’t like to be babysat,” Skye grumbled.

  
“It wasn’t for you, it was for her,” Ward pointed out, “We couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t try to run and I know how you are about taking people out.”

  
Skye scoffed. “Please. You make it sound like I’ve never taken anyone out before.”

  
“Not anyone you’ve had a conversation with. I just want to make sure you’re not getting too attached, because she might not be staying.”

  
“Why would she not be staying?” Skye asked, trying her hardest to sound nonchalant.

  
Ward shrugged and bit into his sandwich, chewing extra slowly just to piss off Skye. “Bakshi wants to test her skills out in the field. They’re planning on engaging that enhanced from Arizona again and he wanted to bring her along—”

  
“What?!” Skye shouted, completely oblivious to her character being stabbed in the chest by bayonets, “She’s not field trained. Why would they want to take her out on that mission?”

  
“Whitehall wants to see how she holds up under pressure and when dealing with an enhanced. If all goes well, she might be getting a promotion to the Enhanced Research Lab, which would be a point for you in our bet,” Ward pointed out.

  
“This is the enhanced that’s ripped the last three agents who have tried to make contact apart. With his bare hands. What does Bakshi think she’s going to be able to do?” Skye hopped up from the couch and started to pace. She had seen this enhanced in action and, he was not someone to be messed with, but Hydra really wanted him. Skye wasn’t sure if she was concerned about the fact they were going after him again, or if it was who they were sending. Of course, if she was being honest with herself, she knew which it was.

  
“Careful, Skye. You’re starting to sound like you’re getting attached,” Ward cautioned.

  
Skye glared at him. “I’m going to the gym,” she muttered, storming out of the lounge before Ward could say anything else.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jemma was running one last test on a strange biological material, when she saw Sunil Bakshi and his entourage marching down the hallway into the lab. She recognized Bakshi from many SHIELD files, but luckily had never encountered him. Since he was second in command to Whitehall, she had yet to see him around the labs, so she was confused why he came down here. She was even more confused (not to mention, quite nervous) when he stopped right in front of her table and stared down at her.

  
“Dr. Simmons is it?” he asked with a falsely cheerful smile on his face. No matter how wide he grinned, Jemma couldn’t ignore the conniving look in his eyes as he appraised her.

  
“Um, yes. Can I help you?” she replied, trying to remain professional.

  
“I’m going to need you to come with me,” Bakshi stated.

  
Jemma’s stomach lurched. This was it. She had somehow outed herself as SHIELD and was going to be taken out back and shot. Or worse.

  
“Is-is there a problem?” she asked.

  
That slimy smirk broke across his face again. “Not at all. I wanted to give you a tour of one of our other labs.”

  
That was not comforting. Still, Jemma didn’t really have a choice. She shut down her station and left her lab goggles on the desk, as Bakshi gestured for her to follow his men down the hall.

  
Jemma followed him through a hallway Jemma had never been down before and Bakshi punched a code into the door at the end. They continued down a few more foreign hallways, each feeling progressively darker and more ominous than the last. The final door they passed through had at least three different security panels on it, which scanned Bakshi’s retinas, fingerprints, and required a voice password.

  
The door slid open, revealing a bustling series of labs with far more equipment than the one Jemma was currently working in. As she glanced around, she noticed Bakshi looking at her expectantly.

  
“So what do you think?” He asked. It was an innocent enough question, but Jemma felt like there was more behind it.

  
“Um, its very nice,” she replied. She tried to keep herself from drooling over the scanning electron microscopes as they continued past the labs.

  
Bakshi just smirked. “We haven't even seen the best part yet.”

  
Jemma had a sinking feeling in her gut at that statement.

  
They passed this series of labs and pushed through the set of double doors at the end of the hallway. This area seemed to be set up for surgical use, but currently most rooms were empty.

  
A surgeon in bloody scrubs strode out of one area and Bakshi gestured for Jemma to take a closer look into the room he had come from. Jemma schooled her features to prepare for whatever was in that room, because she was sure her reaction was being scrutinized.  
Lying on the table was a young man, sedated and with his entire abdomen cut open. A handful of surgeons, or more appropriately, butchers, were gathered around, poking and various parts of the man's anatomy and occasionally pulling something out and placing it in a bowl nearby. Jemma felt like she was going to be sick. She took a deep breath and tried to muster up an expression of interest, but it was harder than she thought. She had never been particularly squeamish, but this wasn't just blood or a normal surgery.

  
Jemma hardly noticed Bakshi slip up next to her until he spoke. “Well?”

  
“What exactly are they doing to him?” Jemma blurted.

  
“Discovery requires experimentation,” he replied smoothly, “He was an enhanced that refused to join us voluntarily, so we decided he could be of use in a different way.”

  
Bakshi seemed completely unperturbed by the gore before him. Jemma wondered how many times he had overseen operations like this before. SHIELD had always known that Hydra  liked to experiment on any enhanced people they happened to encounter, but this was just sadistic.

  
“I've brought you here because we wanted you to see our Enhanced Research Department before we send you on your mission,” Bakshi explained. He turned and strode down the hall and Jemma hurried to keep up, desperate to get away from the operation room.

  
“Um, mission?” She asked.

  
“We have an enhanced that has evaded us for far too long. We’ve managed to track his location and now we have a final chance to make contact and bring him into the fold,” he recited. They stepped into of a room full of tables covered in black body bags.

  
“So, um...what does that have to do with me? I'm not a field agent.”

  
“Unfortunately, we have had very little luck subduing this particular enhanced. His modifications have made it difficult for our field agents to figure out how to neutralize the threat without killing him. He could be a valuable asset and we need to bring him in alive at any cost,” Bakshi stated. He started to unzip the bag and gestured for Jemma to come closer. The person inside was still wearing their Hydra uniform and appeared to have been torn limb from limb by pure strength.

  
“That's where you come in, Dr. Simmons,” he announced, “you will be in the field with our agents, and, if attempts to negotiate fail, you will need to make an assessment on his biology to determine the best way to subdue him safely.”

  
Jemma looked back at the dismembered agent in front of them. She was going onto the field for the first time to track someone who could do that to a person. This had to be a test of some sort. She just hoped it wasn't a test that was going to get her or anyone else killed.

  
“Be ready to leave in an hour, Doctor.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So far, this mission wasn't as terrifying as Jemma had imagined. She had a team of eight Hydra operatives around her, who were in charge of taking down the enhanced if the negotiation team didn't succeed. Normally that wouldn’t have made her feel safe, but technically, they were on her side so their large guns eased her anxiety.

  
The enhanced didn't even get a name in Hydra’s files, just a picture and description of his abilities. Unlike most man-made enhanced people, this man actively tried to replicate the experiments that led to the Hulk, rather than Captain America. Unfortunately for him, he succeeded, but only partially. He had the strength and increased muscle mass, but the radiation he had exposed himself to had fried most of brain cells, leaving him with only basic instincts and no ability to change into a functional human.

  
Surprisingly, Jemma heard Skye’s voice through the communication device in her ear, which Jemma found comforting for some reason. Skye and Ward were on the roof of the warehouse Jemma and the operations team were waiting in, monitoring the location of the other teams. Skye seemed especially tense every time she relayed an update through the comms, which Jemma found strange since she wasn't even on the ground.

  
The announcement came through that the enhanced and the team that was herding him to the warehouse were only a few minutes out. Jemma unlocked the tablet that she was given for this mission and made sure every thing was online. The ops team each had a specialized round in their guns that would take a tissue sample and vitals scan when it made contact. Jemma had not been involved in the development of that technology, but she definitely saved the specs to her hard drive to inspect later. Fitz would kill to get his hands on that technology. That is it he was still alive and if she ever got out of Hydra.

  
A loud roar echoed through the building and the front door crashed open. Jemma made sure she was concealed behind a pillar as far away as she could get from the door.

  
The enhanced was huge. Jemma angled the screen of her tablet around the pillar so she could see what was happening. The man was much older than Jemma was expecting, but moved like a teenager who had just gone through a growth spurt and was unsure of how to handle his new height. He lumbered into the building, looking around wildly.

  
The two agents in suits, who were meant to be the negotiators, strode out into the open warehouse floor to greet him. Jemma wasn't sure they were aware of the man's tentative grasp on language, as they spoke in a level tone about the benefits of joining Hydra.  
All sounded like it was going well. Jemma hoped that maybe her services wouldn't be required.

  
And then she heard the screaming.

  
After a period of awful tearing and squelching sounds, the two agents went silent quickly and the secondary team waited for the order  
“Neutralization team, move in. Tranquilizers only until we get a good read on him,” Ward’s voice crackled through the comm. The armed team hoisted their weapons and closed in on the enhanced.

  
Jemma stayed hidden and listened for the rounds to go off. After some shouting back and forth between the teams, her tablet started to light up with readings on the enhanced’s biology and she poured over the data.

  
It proved very difficult to concentrate once the screaming started again, followed by more gunfire. Jemma didn't have to look to see what was happening. She had seen its results firsthand.

  
She found the solution more quickly than she had anticipated and called around the pillar to relay the news.

  
“I've got it! If you overload his system with adrenaline, rather than a sedative, his body will shut-”

  
She trailed off, as anyone who would have been able to carry out the solution was lying in a pool of blood. There was one last agent standing, but the enhanced quickly dispatched him the same way. And then his eyes locked on Jemma.

  
Skye's voice screamed through the communication, “Jemma, get out of there, now!”

  
Jemma didn’t need to be told twice. She ran, completely unsure if there was another exit that she could get to, but she knew she couldn't stay put.

  
She heard a roar and heavy, lumbering footsteps following her. Unfortunately, the open floor plan of the warehouse afforded very few opportunities to evade a pursuer. She skidded to a sharp turn, hoping that the man’s mass would make him slower when changing directions.

  
She lost track of the enhanced momentarily, distracted by the pounding of her heart in her ears. Ahead of her, Jemma saw a clear path to the front door, where she knew she would have the cover of the roof team.

  
Before she could reach it, a hand clamped around her throat and lifted her off the ground. Up close, the man was even more terrifying. His face was distorted into a permanent snarl and his wild eyes were so bloodshot they were almost completely red. His entire body was now spattered with blood, in addition to the dirt and grime from who knows how long of being on the run. The clothes he was wearing were torn and riddled with bullet holes from all the tranquilizers they had attempted to use on him that only succeeded in angering him.  
The strong hand around her throat slowly tightened and Jemma could feel her air supply being cut off. She clawed uselessly at the hand, instinctively trying to free herself, even though she knew he was much stronger than her.

  
Jemma vaguely registered shouting in her comms, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Her vision started to go fuzzy around the edges, when Jemma saw a dark shape fall from the rafters and a glint of silver.

  
The next thing she knew, she was on the ground gasping in as much air as she could manage. A roar brought her attention back to her attacker.

  
Skye was now latched onto the enhanced’s back with one arm wrapped around his neck. Her short hair whipped wildly around her as the enhanced tried to throw her off. The man staggered backwards, pawing at her and growling. Skye leaped off him, yanking something out of his shoulder as she paced a safe distance away. The flash of silver Jemma had seen was a long dagger that was now covered in blood.

  
The enhanced turned back to Skye, completely forgetting that Jemma was there and charged Skye, who practically danced away from his strikes. Just like Jemma had thought, his size and mass made his attacks ungainly and Skye could easily dodge them. After a few minutes, the man exhausted himself and paused his assaults. Skye took the opportunity to dart in and sank her knife into whatever body part she could reach.

  
The enhanced took advantage of Skye’s proximity, grabbed her and threw her across the warehouse. Jemma heard the crash, but didn’t see where she landed, because bloodshot eyes were suddenly locked on her again.

  
Jemma tried to shuffle backwards and get her feet under her, but she was backed into a wall. The enhanced lumbered towards her, rage filling his eyes. He was only a few steps away when a series of gunshots rang through the warehouse.

  
New holes had appeared in the man’s shirt that blossomed with fresh blood. He froze in shock for a moment, before collapsing with a loud thud.

  
Shuffling footsteps tore Jemma’s gaze away from the man’s still form. Skye stepped out of the shadows with a fresh cut on her head that was oozing blood down her face and one arm wrapped around her ribs. The other hand gripped her handgun, which was definitely not loaded with tranquilizers, and was still raised in the direction of the enhanced.

  
Once she seemed sure that he wasn’t going to get up again, she dropped her arm and shuffled to Jemma’s side.

  
“Are you okay? Did he hurt you at all?” Skye asked worriedly. She gently grabbed Jemma’s chin and started turning her head side to side to inspect her neck, where Jemma was sure she would have bruises forming soon.

  
Jemma shoved her hands away. “I’m fine. I’m the one who should be asking you! You probably have broken ribs, or a concussion, or—”   
She trailed off, distracted by the strange look Skye was giving her.

  
“What?” Jemma asked.

  
Skye jerked out of her reverie. “Huh? Oh, nothing. I was just…worried.”

  
Jemma furrowed her brow in confusion. “Why?” Jemma couldn’t help ask. She thought of the agents that had just been killed, most of which Skye probably knew, but she had broken the mission protocol to save Jemma.

  
Skye blanched and looked unsure how to respond. Luckily, she was spared by the crunch of boots on the ground. The group that was on the roof rappelled down into the warehouse, led by Ward who looked furious.

  
“Contain, not kill. _Contain, not kill_. How many times did we say that in the mission briefing, Skye? Does that look contained?” he shouted, gesturing to the still body of the enhanced.

  
Skye turned to glare at him. “Did you miss the part where he dismembered ten of our agents? He wasn’t going to come quietly,” she growled. She hissed and doubled over, wrapping her arms tighter around her ribs.

  
“We need to get you to the med team, now,” Jemma demanded. She hoisted herself to her feet and then gently pulled Skye up with her and led her to the door.

  
Ward grabbed Skye’s arm as they passed and hissed in her ear, “We’re going to have a very long conversation later about where your priorities lie.”

  
Jemma wasn’t sure what he meant, but right now, it didn’t matter. She led Skye to the waiting jet and retrieved the first aid equipment. There was nothing she could do for broken ribs right now, but she could at least tend to the bleeding wound on Skye’s forehead.   
“I—um. Thank you,” Jemma mumbled, while she dabbed antiseptic on the gash, “for saving my life.”

  
“It was, uh. No problem. Really,” Skye muttered with a shrug. Jemma picked up on the forced casualness of the statement, but chose not to comment. Shortly after, the remaining members of the team began to load everything back into the jet and prepared to take off. Skye didn’t speak the rest of the plane ride back to base. Jemma sat quietly as well, trying to ignore Ward’s glare boring into her from across the plane. 


	6. Still Fight and I Don't Know Why

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma and Skye spend a little more personal time together.

“So what does this thing do?”

  
“That’s a centrifuge and it is very delicately balanced so please do not touch it,” Jemma explained. Skye jerked her hands back from the machine, held them up in surrender, and shuffled over to lean on Jemma’s desk. She had been ‘benched’ for the week since the mission with the enhanced, partially because of her cracked rib and partially for interfering with the mission. Since Skye had nothing better to do, apparently, she spent most of her time in the lab hovering around Jemma.

  
Jemma couldn't complain much about her presence, given that Skye had risked her life to save her. Also, her presence kept Atticus far, far away from Jemma’s desk which she appreciated greatly. Any time he would wander within twenty feet of them, Skye would scowl at him and send him scurrying back to his office.

  
“I’m really not a fan of that guy,” Skye commented.

  
Jemma just hummed noncommittally. She wasn’t either, but she was well aware that someone might still be listening in.

  
“I don’t make a habit of smashing people’s faces into tables, just so you know.”

  
Jemma looked up from her paperwork. “I didn’t think you did.”

  
She wasn’t sure why Skye felt the need to tell her this. Jemma kept the moment in the back of her mind for whenever she started to feel too comfortable here. She just assumed that Skye had forgotten about the incident.

  
“He’s such a condescending dick,” Skye muttered, “I was told to ask why his reports were taking so long. Simple right? Then he starts talking down to me like I’m an idiot when I asked a simple question.”

  
Jemma’s eyes flicked down to Skye’s hands which were now clenching the desk hard. This was apparently a sore subject for her.

  
“That’s how he talks to everybody, Skye. I wouldn’t be too offended by him,” Jemma remarked, “Plus he seems like he’s learned his lesson now.”

  
Skye smirked towards the office Atticus had locked himself in and seemed pleased when she noticed him flinch away from her gaze. “I know, it’s just annoying. I am smart, you know.”

  
Jemma looked around for her pipette. While it was easier to work without her boss over her shoulder, Skye was doing her best to be just as distracting. Jemma located the pipette across the desk. As she reached for it, Skye leaned into her line of vision.

  
“I used to be a hacker. Before I got into Hydra,” she stated proudly. That was definitely new information.

  
“Really?”

  
“Yep,” Skye confirmed with a smile, “I once hacked into the FDA, the FBI, a whole bunch of other places. Also, Trump now makes a very generous yearly contribution to the Muslim American Society.”

  
Jemma chuckled at that. Skye certainly seemed very proud of her work.

  
“You said you used to be a hacker. What made you stop?” Jemma asked. She was determined to make the woman in front of her less of an enigma. Maybe that would get rid of the nagging urge in the back of her mind that wanted to know everything about Skye.

  
Skye shrugged. “Once I joined up with Hydra, they didn’t want to attract any unnecessary attention to the organization. I still get to use my skills occasionally, though.”

  
“And how did that come about? Joining up with Hydra?” Jemma prodded. Just to uncover what part of the ideology led someone like Skye to a place like Hydra.

  
Skye’s eyes just twinkled with that mischievous glint. “That’s a story for another day. Are you busy tonight?”

  
Jemma shot her a look. She wasn’t allowed to leave the building without an escort. What plans could she possibly have?

  
“Just checking. I’ve got this terrible movie that I’ve been wanting to watch with someone for awhile. You up for a movie night?” Skye asked, “I’ll bring popcorn.”

  
Jemma considered her for a moment. Where was the harm in one movie night? She nodded and smiled to herself when Skye’s face lit up.   
“I’m off at 7.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skye said she had an errand to run after work, so Jemma had enough time to tidy up her apartment and take a shower to wash the grime from the lab off her before their movie night. Jemma glared at her hands as they smoothed out the blanket draped over her couch and refused to stop shaking.

  
She really shouldn’t have been nervous. It wasn’t like Skye had never been in her apartment before. She just had never been over in a...casual setting. This wasn’t a date, right? Just a movie night between coworkers. It couldn’t be a date. Shouldn’t be a date. Still, if Jemma wore her nicest jeans and a cute cardigan, it was just because she wanted to look presentable.

  
There was a slight knock at the door and Jemma went to pull it open without checking the peephole. She was greeted with a large paper bag that looked in danger of bursting.

  
“What are you wearing?” she heard Skye’s voice ask from behind the bag.

  
“Um...a sweater?” Jemma replied, completely confused, “Would you like a hand with that?”

  
Skye waved her off and pushed past Jemma into her apartment. Jemma guided her to the kitchen counter, where Skye dumped the bag, nearly losing some of its contents to the floor.

  
“This is a movie night! You’re supposed to wear comfy pajamas,” Skye insisted, while she unloaded the contents of the bag. Just then, Jemma noticed that Skye was wearing flannel pajama pants with puppies wearing bow ties printed on them and a loose tank top with her leather jacket over it.

  
“Did you….go to the store wearing that?” Jemma asked.

  
“Of course,” Skye responded, like it was the most normal thing in the world to cavort around the supermarket in pajamas, “Now, go change into something more appropriate.”

  
Jemma rolled her eyes, but went to find her pajamas anyway. When she padded back into the kitchen, Skye was standing in front of her open refrigerator concentrating intently on where to place the items in her hands.

  
“I thought you were just bringing popcorn,” Jemma wondered, looking at the spread of groceries on her counter.

  
“Which I did,” Skye remarked, waving the box to illustrate her point, “The grocery runners were being bitchy about the list we gave them the other day so I made the trip for them.”

  
Jemma glanced over the items: it was all the things she had mentioned the first excursion that had been on. She was touched.   
“You didn’t have to do that.”

  
Skye waved her off. “I told you someone would take care of it for you. Now, help me put this stuff away so we can start our movie.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was disconcerting, to say the least. Jemma had seen Skye turn her boss into a quivering mess in the span of seconds and take down a seven foot tall enhanced individual with a knife. Yet, here she was, on Jemma’s couch in her puppy pajamas, snorting carelessly at every bad joke and pun in the movie.

  
The movie turned out to be some bad spy comedy. Despite the terrible effects and convoluted plot, they could at least laugh about how unrealistic everything was.

  
Jemma tried to watch the movie, but she spent most of it distracted by Skye. She seemed so at ease. The cocky, intimidating persona she always seemed to don around the office was nowhere to be found tonight. Whenever a particularly funny situation arose in the movie, Skye would laugh with her whole body, practically rolling on the couch. Jemma found that all thoughts of Hydra were far away whenever Skye laughed.

  
When the movie reached the climax, where the two opposing spies realized they had feelings for each other, Jemma started to doze off.   
She jolted awake what felt like moments later. The movie had apparently ended and looped back to the menu screen that blared music loudly, which had startled Jemma awake. She had a slight crick in her neck from the awkward angle she fell asleep in, but otherwise was warm and comfortable.

  
She soon realized why she was so warm. At some point, she must have repositioned herself, because she was leaning against Skye’s shoulder and snuggled into her side. The other woman was snoring softly and her head rested against the top of Jemma’s.   
Jemma gingerly extracted herself from the couch and tried to shift Skye to a more comfortable position without waking her. It was some time past one in the morning now and it would be rude to wake Skye up and kick her out at this point.

  
Jemma tugged the spare blanket off the back of the couch and draped it over Skye, before tucking a small pillow under her and tiptoeing to her bedroom.

  
She couldn’t help sparing a glance backwards as she slipped out of the room. Skye curled herself into a ball on the couch and all Jemma could think about was how young she looked. She wanted to know how Skye ended up at Hydra, but that didn’t seem to be information Skye would easily give up.

  
Jemma’s heart ached when she thought of all the circumstances that could have driven her here. Granted, Jemma’s situation here wasn’t ideal either, but she at least had a team on the outside that was trying to get her out of it. At least, she hoped she did.

  
Jemma pushed those depressing thoughts out of her head. She just needed to focus on keeping her head until she could think of a way to get out of here. She clicked off the lights and slipped into bed, determined not to think about how comfortable and safe she felt against Skye’s shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. Kinda forgot to update this one. My bad. Enjoy anyway!


	7. Caught Me By Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma learns that the time she's spending with Skye is giving her coworkers a lot to talk about.

An unfortunate side effect of Skye’s operations training was that she never could wake up slowly. One moment she was dead to the world, the next she was wide awake. She supposed it helped her in the field, as she was ready to move within seconds, but on the weekends it was just irritating. But, it usually didn’t take her so long to get her bearings.

  
Half of Skye’s face was pressed into a squishy couch that definitely wasn’t hers. There was a blanket draped over her shoulders that also wasn’t hers and the smell of tea and bagels was not typical to Skye’s apartment.

  
There was an almost inaudible shuffling coming from a nearby room, which Skye supposed must have been what woke her up. Skye cracked an eye open. She was still in Jemma’s apartment. The sun streaming through the windows told Skye that she had spent the night.

  
Skye rolled off the couch and started searching around for her phone to figure out what time it was. Once she found it, she unlocked it and saw a whole list of texts from Ward.

  
Most of them were teasing her about not coming home last night and wondering who she was with. Skye figured it would be best not to tell him. With the lecture she got after the enhanced mission about ‘getting attached to potential traitors to Hydra,’ the last thing she needed was for Ward to find out she had spent the night at Jemma’s place.

  
The last message was from about 9 in the morning that read, You’re off the bench. Mission briefing in 2 hours. It was almost 11 now.   
Skye grabbed her jacket from the chair she had tossed it on last night and peeked into the kitchen.

  
“Hey, Jemma?”

  
“Oh, morning Skye. I didn’t realize you were awake,” Jemma greeted, while strolling over to the stove to retrieve her tea kettle.

  
“Yeah, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. You could have kicked me out, you know,” Skye pointed out.

  
Jemma made a face at her. “It was nearly 2 by the time I realized you were asleep. I’m not rude enough to make you leave at that hour. Especially, not in your pajamas.”

  
Skye looked down and realized she was still wearing her puppy print pj pants and hadn’t brought a change of clothes. There was no way she was going to a mission briefing in those.

  
“Would you like a bagel?” Jemma asked.

  
“Uh, thanks, but no. I got cleared for a mission, apparently, and I’ve gotta run,” Skye explained.

  
“Oh. Alright then,” Jemma replied. Skye must have imagined that she sounded slightly disappointed. “Well, be safe.”

  
“I’ll try,” Skye assured. It was a lie. She never aimed to be ‘safe’ when she went on missions, but Jemma didn’t need to know that. Not that she would be worried or anything.

  
Skye slipped out the front door, focusing on closing the door as quietly as possible to attract minimal attention. Unfortunately, she didn’t check the hallway first.

  
“Oh, hi Skye,” a voice chirped behind her.

  
Skye whipped around. It was one of the lab technicians who worked next to Jemma. Skye thought her name might be Tammy, but she wasn’t entirely sure. What she was sure of was that Skye sneaking out of Jemma’s apartment in the morning wearing her pajamas did not look good.

  
Skye could see Tammy’s eyes drifting over her appearance and putting the pieces together. Skye really should have thought this whole situation through.

  
“So, how was your night?” Tammy asked suggestively.

  
“Great,” Skye blurted, “I mean, it was fine. Just...not bad. Nothing exciting. I mean, it was— you know, I’ve gotta go.”

  
Skye darted down the hall, away from this situation. For a high-level super spy, she really sucked at talking her way out of things. She tried not to look too guilty, while she basically ran home to her apartment and hoped that Tammy wasn’t a gossip.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
“So, are you and Skye, like, a Thing?”

  
Jemma had barely managed to pull the files for her newest project out, when Tammy sprawled across her desk and threw the question at her like a dart.

  
“Um… I’m sorry?” Jemma questioned.

  
“I ran into her coming out of your apartment this morning. Did you guys—”

  
“Oh! No, no. Definitely not. We just watched a movie last night and she ended up staying over,” Jemma explained.

  
A look of realization crossed Tammy’s face. “Oh, I get it. Like a ‘Netflix and Chill’ type thing. I got you.”

  
“I’m sorry, a what?”

  
They were momentarily distracted by a group of people moving in the hall. Ward was leading the group, with Skye close behind and a group of other Specialists trailing after. Skye was still pulling on all her tactical gear, but saw Jemma and gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up as they exited the hall. Jemma gave her a slight wave, and could feel Tammy’s eyes on her the whole time.

  
“Has she taken you to The Garage yet?” Tammy wondered.

  
“What's The Garage?” Jemma couldn't help asking.

  
Tammy scooted closer and whispered conspiratorially, “Well, officially, it really is just the garage where we all our cars are parked. It's also the only place in the building where there are no security cameras, so unofficially, it’s where we go to, ya know, blow off some steam during work.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

  
“No! No, we’ve never- we're not- “ Jemma could feel her face burning. She quickly ducked back into her work, unsure how to explain herself.

  
Tammy seemed to get the message and just chuckled as she went back to her desk.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
Jemma was just starting to settle in for the evening, when she heard a knock at her apartment door. She shuffled over and cracked the door open.

  
Skye leaned against her doorframe, covered in bruises and scrapes and with a particularly bad scratch on her cheek.

  
“Hey,” she muttered sheepishly.

  
“‘Hey?’ Really? What on earth happened to you?” Jemma demanded, pulling her inside and inspecting her injuries.

  
“Well, I didn't get to bother you during work, so I figured I'd stop by before I headed to Medical,” Skye explained.

  
“You haven't even been to Medical?” Jemma screeched in disbelief. She guided Skye over to her couch and plopped her down on the armrest so she could keep looking her over.

  
Skye just shrugged, wincing slightly.

  
“I think Blondie rebroke my rib,” she muttered, “SHIELD sort of interfered with our recon mission. Remember that blonde chick from the lab we grabbed you from?”

  
“Bobbi? She’s alive?” Jemma blurted, a little too enthusiastically.

  
Skye pulled a mock offended look. “I am too, thanks for noticing. But yeah, she’s alive. And she definitely remembered me.”

  
Skye unzipped her tactical suit down to her navel. Before Jemma could react, she had tugged the material to the side, revealing a quarter-sized burn mark under her ribs surrounded by a quickly forming purplish bruise. “Did you know she had built in tasers in those stick things she uses?” Skye asked rhetorically.

  
Jemma did know that. She had actually helped Fitz design them and knew what kind of damage they could do. Her  concerns must have shown on her face because Skye shrugged her off.

  
“Don't worry, Ward grabbed me before she could do any serious damage. She seemed seriously pissed to see me though.” Skye said  
“Well, you did kidnap me right out from under her nose,” Jemma replied, only half teasing. Bobbi knew very well what usually happened to SHIELD agents in Hydra custody. She probably assumed Jemma was dead or being tortured.

  
“Yeah,” Skye snorted, “Getting tasered didn't make me regret that though.”

  
Jemma looked up from her inspection of Skye’s wounds to find Skye’s eyes locked on her. Neither spoke to a few moments. Jemma wasn't sure how to respond to that, but she noticed Skye’s eyes keep flicking to her lips.

  
Skye finally spoke first. “So, um. I've been thinking. Do you want to maybe...go out sometime? Like an actual date?”

  
Alarm bells started screaming in the rational part of Jemma brain that brought her attention to the Hydra patch on Skye’s shoulder. The rest of her brain seemed to be entranced by the expanse of skin Skye's unzipped suit exposed.

  
“I...um. I don’t think your boss would approve of that very much,” Jemma deflected.

  
Skye rolled her eyes. “Ward doesn’t get to control my personal life, no matter how much he wishes he could.” She inspected Jemma’s face for a moment longer. “You can say no. Just don’t say no because you’re worried about Ward.”

  
Do it, Jemma. Just say no, she thought to herself. “I...yes. I’d like to, actually,” Jemma replied. It’s not like Ward could hate her any more than he did.

  
Skye’s face lit up and she jumped to her feet. “Great!” she exclaimed. Suddenly, she was standing mere inches from Jemma and Jemma sucked in a breath in anticipation. Skye reluctantly took a step back to get to a more appropriate level of closeness.

  
“I...uh. How about Saturday?” Skye suggested, “We could do a movie or a walk in the park or something.”

  
Jemma genuinely smiled. “Either sounds lovely.”

  
“Great! I-I already said that, didn’t I? Well, I’ll see you Saturday then,” Skye rambled, heading for the door. She yanked the door open and was about to step into the hall, when Jemma realized something.

  
“Skye, wait!” she called. Skye spun to face her. “Um...zipper.”

  
Skye looked down and realized her suit was still unzipped. She blushed slightly and tugged the zipper back up.

  
“Thanks,” she called back. She took one step into the hall and froze. “Uh...hi, Tammy.”

  
“Hi, Skye,” Tammy’s voice greeted with a teasing tone, “Good mission?”

  
“Yep. Great, couldn’t be better,” Skye’s voice sounded like it was moving down the hall rather quickly. Jemma went to close the door and Tammy passed by on her way to her own apartment, mouthing an excited ‘oh my god’ at her.

  
Jemma closed the door and groaned loudly. Living with all her coworkers was starting to get really annoying.


	8. Can You Keep Me High

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye and Jemma finally get their date

Saturday both took too long to arrive and showed up far too quickly. Jemma spent the preceding week in a constant state of disagreement with herself. She really liked Skye. She was honest and kind and beautiful and the only person in this facility to go out of their way to make Jemma feel comfortable. Even most of the other technicians in the lab were wary around Jemma, like she might suddenly rip off her shirt to reveal a SHIELD logo and tear the building down with her bare hands.

  
Jemma was also painfully aware that it could all be an act. She never wanted to believe the worst in people, but this was Hydra. She knew how well-trained their field agent could be in manipulation.

  
Skye was gone most of the week on missions, so she didn’t spend much time in the lab, which Jemma was grateful for. Jemma spent most of her free time in the reference library looking up symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome in Skye’s absence.

  
But Saturday night was finally here. Skye had time to flit by the lab to tell Jemma what time to expect her, but not what her plans for the evening were. Jemma hated being unprepared, so she thought of every possible scenario. Was a dress too much? If tonight ended like their last outing, where they tried to ditch a tail, a dress would not be a good idea. Should she wear shoes she could run in then? No, that would look tacky.

  
Jemma stood in front of the mirror, critiquing her latest outfit. A nice flowy shirt, comfy jeans, dressy boots, perfect right? No, it was terrible. Jemma was just about to change again, when she heard the knock on her door. Her eyes darted to the clock on her nightstand. Shoot, she had managed to waste all her time changing outfits. Great.

  
She jogged over to the door, running her hands through her hair in a last minute attempt to spruce it up. This was going to be fine. Just think of it as an undercover mission. That would help, right?

  
Jemma yanked the door open and greeted Skye with a nervous smile. Skye seemed to have prepared for a slightly casual night, so Jemma was thankful she had ended up in a similar outfit. Skye still looked gorgeous. Her short, choppy hair was slightly curled and her makeup strategically dragged Jemma’s gaze to her eyes and lips. She was wearing a simple, blue button-up shirt and skinny jeans so snug that Jemma could see every curve of Skye’s legs. Jemma was slightly comforted by the fact that Skye likely couldn’t hide any weapons in those pants. She probably still had a knife in her boots or something. She seemed a bit awkward standing in Jemma’s doorway, picking at her fingernails.

  
Skye opened her mouth to speak and looked down at her empty hands. “Shit! I-I should have brought something. Like flowers or...anything.” She looked up at Jemma guiltily. “I’m terrible at this. I’m sorry.”

  
Jemma chuckled. “I think we’ll manage without flowers.”

  
“Okay. Are you ready to go? I mean, it’s okay if you’re not. I’m kind of early. I just didn’t want to be late because that would be rude and—”

  
Jemma quirked an eyebrow at her. Was the legendary Hydra badass, Skye, nervous about their date? She cut off Skye’s rambling by reaching out and grabbing one of her fidgeting hands.

  
“Skye. I’m ready. It’s fine. Just let me grab my keys,” Jemma said, squeezing Skye’s hand reassuringly. Skye nodded and a small smile spread across her lips. Jemma was glad she wasn’t the only one who was nervous.

  
Jemma locked up her apartment and followed Skye down to the front desk to sign Jemma out and get her ID card. They headed down the street silence, neither wanting to be the one to start up the conversation. Jemma noticed that Skye had started fidgeting with her hands again as they walked.

  
“We’re in Boston, by the way,” Skye blurted, finally breaking the silence.

  
“What?”

  
“I noticed you trying to figure it out the other day and I realized no one probably told you where we were,” Skye explained, “I figured it’s probably innocuous enough for you to know what city you’re in.”

  
“Well, you did take away my cell phone, so it’s not like I could tell anyone,” Jemma responded. That was definitely the wrong thing to say. That made it sound like she wanted to call someone. She quickly searched Skye’s face for her reaction.

  
Skye just chuckled. “That’s true. Give it a little more time and we might be able to convince someone to give your phone back. With some restrictions, of course.”

  
“Right,” Jemma muttered, “And thank you.”

  
Skye’s eyes lit up like Jemma had given her the world with that one thank you. Skye stopped short in front of a small, but fancy-looking restaurant and swept the door open for Jemma to walk through. Only a few of the tables were occupied and the whole restaurant seemed to be lit by the warm glow of candlelight. Skye sauntered up to the hostess.

  
“I have a reservation for Poots,” Skye muttered.

  
Jemma couldn’t help the snort that escaped her. Skye gave her a slightly offended glare, but she had an amused sparkle in her eyes.

  
“What?”

  
“Is that really your last name?” Jemma wondered.

  
“Of course not,” Skye whispered, “I don’t have a last name, so I have to use something to make reservations.”

  
“I’m sure there’s a great story there,” Jemma replied.

  
“It’s not as exciting as it seems.”

  
The hostess returned and gestured for them to follow her to their table. Once settled, Jemma started to see why Skye was so nervous. They seemed to be the only two in this part of the restaurant with nothing but a small flickering candle separating Jemma from Skye’s piercing gaze. She fought the urge to hide behind her menu.

  
The waiter came by with a bottle of wine and Skye practically grabbed the glass from his hands before he finished pouring. Jemma noticed as soon as her own wine glass hit the table that small ripples were forming across the surface. She placed a hand on the table and felt the whole thing vibrating slightly.

  
“Skye?”

  
“Yeah?” she replied with forced casualness.

  
“You’re shaking the table,” Jemma pointed out.

  
Skye seemed to suddenly realize she was jostling the whole table with her nervous bouncing. “Sorry. Bad habit.”

  
They lapsed into silence again. Jemma quickly realized that she would have to be the one to lead the conversation for once.

  
“So,” she began, “I realize I know basically nothing about you.”

  
Skye scoffed. “You know stuff about me.”

  
“No. I know your first name and where you work. And that you, apparently think it’s normal to wear pajamas outside the house.”

  
“Don’t knock it ‘til you try it,” Skye retorted with a smirk. “But, alright. What do you want to know?”

  
Jemma thought for a moment. Where to begin? “Why don’t you have a last name?”

  
“Legally, Poots is my last name. It was the one they gave me when I got dropped off at the orphanage anyway, but it sucks so I don’t use it.”

  
Jemma’s heart sank.

  
“Usually, I don’t bring out the ‘orphan’ thing on the first date, but you asked,” Skye teased. She didn’t seem too distraught over having the fact brought up. Jemma could tell she was still holding something back, though.

  
“I did ask,” Jemma agreed, “So, how did you end up with Hydra? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  
Skye smirked. “Wow, just asking all the big questions tonight, aren’t we?”

  
“It’s only fair. I’m sure you had a whole file on me when I first showed up.”

  
“I would nev— okay, I skimmed it,” Skye admitted sheepishly, “I gotta say, two PhDs by age 17? Pretty impressive.”

  
“You’re dodging the question.”

  
“Okay, fine,” Skye held her hands up in surrender, but she had a wide grin on. At least they finally broke the ice. “I got out of the foster system early, erased all trace of my existence from the records, and started hacking. I ended up attracting a little too much attention from a bunch of shady organizations that I shouldn’t have been involved with. Eventually, Ward tracked me down and offered me a job instead of jail time. He took me in, kind of mentored me, kept an eye on me. He’s basically like an annoying big brother to me now,” Skye finished.

  
That would almost be a sweet story if Hydra wasn’t involved. Jemma just smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.

  
“What about you? I don’t know how you ended up with SHIELD,” Skye countered.

  
“They found me after I finished my second degree and asked me to go to their academy. Nothing nearly so exciting as your story.” Jemma waved her off.

  
“I don’t know, that’s pretty exciting. Not even old enough to vote and you already got a job in a sketchy spy organization. Guess they were really impressed with your super-smarts,” Skye teased.

  
“Sounds to me like you managed to impress a ‘sketchy spy organization’ with your super-smarts as well.”

  
Skye ducked behind her menu slightly, but Jemma could tell she was preening a bit at the compliment. The conversation flowed much more easily after that. The food was wonderful and Skye insisted on sharing a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Jemma lost track of how long they stayed there, laughing and talking like it was the most natural thing.

  
They eventually paid and left the restaurant. Skye stood by the curb, suddenly looking unsure of herself again.

  
“So, uh. I didn’t really plan anything for after dinner. I figured I would let you chose, since you don’t get to leave that often. Uh, there’s a couple bars nearby, if you’re into that. There’s a comedy club down the road that’s pretty decent.”

  
Jemma raised an eyebrow. “A comedy club?”

  
“Yeah. What, you think Hydra agents don’t like to laugh sometimes? Not all of us have sticks up our asses like Ward.”

  
“I didn’t say anything,” Jemma said with a chuckle. “It’s a nice night, though. We could just walk. See the sights.”

  
Skye smiled warmly at her. “That sounds great.”

  
Skye, luckily, was quite familiar with the city. She led Jemma through all the lively parts of town and pointed out various places she had been and had a story for each one. Jemma, for the most part, watched her talk animatedly through every anecdote.

  
At one point, Jemma noticed Skye glancing down at her hands every few words. Her hand closest to Jemma kept tentatively reaching out, before pulling back and clenching into a fist. Jemma rolled her eyes and reached out to thread her fingers through Skye’s. Skye beamed at her and squeezed her hand tighter as they continued down the road.

  
Skye only dropped her hand for a moment to dart into a small gift shop they passed. When she emerged, she thrust a small bouquet of colorful daisies into Jemma’s hands and smirked as if she was in on some secret joke.

  
They eventually circled back to the Hydra building. At this hour of night, the high-rise seemed to loom out of the shadows of the surrounding buildings and Jemma felt a shiver run up her spine. She wondered if, at this point, Skye would try to stop her if she ran. Jemma pushed the thought away, squared her shoulders, and marched into the building.

  
Skye offered to walk Jemma all the way to her door, which Jemma suspected was just an excuse to get to hold her hand longer. Skye hadn’t let go of her for more than a minute since Jemma had first laced their fingers together. Normally, Jemma would feel like this was a possessive gesture, but in this case it seemed like Skye just wanted to touch her.

  
They rode the elevator in companionable silence to Jemma’s floor. The elevator dinged their arrival and Jemma led the way to her door, with Skye trailing after. She reluctantly dropped Skye’s hand to fish out her key once she reached her apartment door.

  
“Well, this is me,” Jemma stated.

  
“Right. I, uh. I had a—”

  
“Wonderful time tonight.”

  
“Yeah. And, maybe, we could—”

  
“Do it again sometime?” Jemma replied hopefully.

  
Skye smirked. “You realize you keep finishing my—”

  
“Sentences. I know, sorry. Bad habit.”

  
Skye chuckled. “It’s fine. It’s cute.”

  
Skye shuffled closer to Jemma and slowly started to lean in, giving Jemma plenty of time in case she wanted to pull away. But she didn’t. Jemma was hopelessly falling for this girl she knew her team would crucify her for associating with normally, but she found she didn’t care.

  
Jemma surged up and met Skye’s lips with her own. Right away, Skye deepened the kiss, gently, but with equal enthusiasm. Jemma barely registered her back hitting the door to her apartment. She slipped her arms around Skye’s neck, pulling her even closer and deepening the kiss. Skye’s tongue traced the seam of Jemma’s lips, asking for entrance, and Jemma parted them with a sigh.

  
Jemma could feel Skye’s hands tracing tiny circles along her waist, leaving tingling little trails along Jemma’s skin.  
It wasn’t until she felt fingers slip into the waistband of her pants that Jemma came back to herself. She couldn’t do this. Skye was too attached to Hydra; there was no way Jemma would be able to save her when SHIELD found her.

  
She gently pulled back from Skye’s touch and took a moment to catch her breath. She almost reconsidered when she saw Skye’s flushed cheeks and mussed hair. Jemma felt her heart squeeze at the idea of pushing her away.

  
“I, um. I just remembered, I have an early day tomorrow, so I probably should turn in soon,” Jemma whispered. Skye was still so close it would be so easy to pull her back in.

  
“Oh. Okay,” Skye muttered, looking slightly confused.

  
“Sorry,” Jemma replied. And she really was.

  
“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t realize how late it had gotten,” Skye said, “Can I still come bug you in the lab tomorrow?”

  
“Of course.”

  
“Cool,” Skye replied with a blinding smile. She leaned in and pressed a quick, chaste kiss to Jemma’s lips. “Good night, then.”

  
Jemma smiled and watched Skye walk back to the elevator. Once the elevator doors closed, she jammed her keys into the door and practically slammed it behind her. She slid down the door and buried her face in her hands. She was so screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, finally getting to the good stuff! We get a little backstory on Skye, finally! Just a head's up next chapter we're gonna be bumping up the rating a tad, so be prepared!


	9. I'm Gonna Find a Way to Let You Have Your Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A security concern in the lab has tensions running high and Skye and Jemma have a talk about where they stand.

Skye didn’t seem to take any offense at Jemma’s brush off at the end of their date. She still spent every free day with Jemma in the lab, the only difference being that instead of sitting on Tammy’s desk and watching, she was typically perched on Jemma’s desk, doing her best to distract her. Many days, she was called off to missions, but directly afterwards, she would check in with Jemma just to talk, no matter how bruised and battered she was.

  
It was still killing Jemma trying to keep her at arm’s length. Skye continued to disguise her flirting as curiosity about Jemma’s work and would frequently inquire about items that would make her lean close to Jemma to grab. That, combined with the lingering touches every time Jemma moved her out of the way, was driving her up the wall.

  
She wanted Skye. Badly. But, she didn’t think she could allow herself to get too deep in a relationship with her. It was already going to tear Jemma apart if she ever got to leave.

  
Today, Skye was asking about the different purposes of the various shapes of flasks they used in the lab, conspicuously reaching around Jemma and pressing against her back every time she picked one up. It was maddening. As much as she was enjoying the proximity, she was very close to shooing Skye towards Tammy’s desk again, so she could get some work done. She had deadlines to keep and was doing her best to keep off the management’s radar.

  
“So, what happens if you break one?” Skye asked, leaning against Jemma’s shoulder and wiggled an empty flask in front of herself.

  
“I have to clean up the glass and get a new one.”

  
“Have you ever made one explode?”

  
“No, because I know how to avoid explosive reactions.”

  
“Well, that’s no fun.” Skye pouted. “So which of these things would explode if I mixed them together?”

  
“I’m not telling you that.”

  
“So, I should just grab two random things and mix them together?” Skye threatened.

  
“No!”

  
Skye went suspiciously silent for a moment, prompting Jemma to look up from her work again. Skye was trying to be sneaky as she slipped two small bottles from the cupboard above Jemma’s work space.

  
“Don’t you dare, Skye!” Jemma scolded lightly, trying to snatch the bottles from Skye’s hand. She knew Skye was just doing it to mess with her and sincerely hoped she wasn’t reckless enough to disregard lab protocols.

  
“How are you going to stop me?” Skye dared. She tucked the bottle behind her back, no doubt hoping for Jemma to reach around her to grope for it blindly. Either way, she was already pressed up against Skye, dangerously close for a working environment. Jemma was sure her coworkers were not very amused with their constant flirting already.

  
The doors to the lab burst open suddenly, causing Skye to lurch backward. Ward, along with a half-dozen armed soldiers marched in. Jemma’s mind raced through anything potentially incriminating that she had done to attract attention.

  
Ward’s gaze landed on her and his glare deepened, but he kept searching the room. Jemma breathed a minor sigh of relief. Suddenly, Ward pointed towards the back corner of the room and the soldiers with him advanced. The man they targeted weakly protested, but was ignored and roughly restrained, while Ward sauntered over to his desk and started rooting through the drawers.

  
Skye darted over to him, all her playfulness from before gone and replace with concern. “Ward, what’s going on?”

  
“Oh, Skye. Glad you’re here,” he replied calmly, barely taking his eyes from his task. “Security breach. This man has been selling intel on us to SHIELD.”

  
As if to illustrate his point, he lifted a transparent sheet from the drawer that Jemma recognized from past undercover missions her team had done. Was this man she had never spoken to a SHIELD agent? Did that mean her team knew where she was? Or had she played the part of the Hydra scientist too well and slipped under his notice?

  
“That’s not mine! I’ve never seen that before! I don’t even know what that is,” the restrained man rambled. The air in the lab was so thick it was hard to breath.

  
“Skye, you know what needs to be done,” Ward said with a nonchalant gesture towards the whimpering man.

  
“What?”

  
“This man is a traitor to Hydra,” Ward growled, “He needs to be made an example of.”

  
“Wh—Not like this. We can take him to Whitehall or—”

  
“This is how it needs to be, Skye. Do you have a problem with that?”

  
“I—”

  
“Do it now, Skye,” Ward demanded. His eyes flickered briefly towards Jemma. Even Jemma could sense the ‘ _or else_ ’ that hung in the air following his command.

  
Skye spared a quick glance toward Jemma. Jemma could almost see the shift in her eyes—from the carefree Skye she had come to know to the hardened Hydra agent she met back at the SHIELD lab— as she turned back to Ward. In one swift movement, Skye’s gun was out of its holster, cocked, and fired. Jemma heard a startled screech somewhere behind her as everyone in the lab lurched.

  
The accused man now had a shocked expression permanently frozen on his face and a fresh, bloody wound in the center of his forehead. It took a few moments for his body to slump, at which point he was dragged from the lab by the soldiers.

  
Without another word, Skye turned on her heel and darted from the lab. Ward quickly followed her and grabbed her by the arm once they were in the hallway. Jemma couldn’t hear what they were saying through the glass, but Ward’s expression looked placating. Skye spun around and punched Ward in the jaw, before spitting something incoherent at him and stomping out of sight.

  
No one in the lab spoke the rest of the day. The more experienced employees carefully looked away when a crew came in later that day to clean out the man’s desk. Jemma tried to feel sympathy for this nameless Hydra defector, but all she could think about was Skye’s broken expression as she stormed from the room.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
Jemma didn’t see Skye for days. The somber tone had yet to leave the lab, causing even Tammy to be completely focused on work. Lately, there were barely any missions going into the field, so Jemma wondered where Skye was spending all her time. She was starting to get concerned, especially with the increased security patrols wandering the hallways for the past few days.

  
Jemma supposed Skye would need some time to herself every once in awhile, but she was starting to miss her constant presence. Skye hovering around was the only thing that made every day bearable. That, and they really needed to have a serious talk about where they stood.

  
Jemma was pretty sure she had run the same samples three times in her distracted state, when she heard footsteps come up behind her. She turned around just in time to come face to face with Skye.

  
“Sk—”

  
“Meet me in the garage in five minutes,” Skye whispered harshly. Her eyes were rimmed with red and burning with something Jemma couldn’t name.

  
Before Jemma could even ask any questions, Skye swept from the room. Jemma’s heart was pounding. She wondered why Skye would want to see her in the garage. She suddenly thought back to what Tammy had told her ages ago...but there was no way Skye would want meet her there for _that_. Right? _Right_?

  
Jemma took a few deep breaths and attempted to calm herself and headed towards the garage. She wasn’t entirely sure where it was, so it would probably take her all of five minutes to get there.

  
Jemma had no idea what she was going to say to Skye. She had planned how to get Skye to talk about their relationship numerous times, but she hadn’t planned what to say. Nor had she planned for the...security breach incident. Now, she didn’t know what she was going to do, but she needed to think of a way to turn Skye down gently.

  
When she found the garage, Skye was already there. She didn’t even acknowledge Jemma entering, as she was darting between the black armored cars, wrenching doors open and searching them, before slamming them again. She finally finished and advanced on Jemma with an intensity that made her take a step back.

  
“Skye, we need to tal—”

  
Jemma didn’t get to finish her sentence before she was grabbed by the front of her shirt and roughly pushed into the door of the nearest car with Skye’s forearm pressing against her throat.

  
“Are you loyal to Hydra?” Skye hissed.

  
That was definitely not what Jemma was expecting to hear. “I— What?”

  
“Are you. Loyal. _To Hydra_?” she repeated. Her eyes were searching Jemma’s intently. She was only inches away from Jemma, but this couldn’t have been more different from their teasing and bantering from a few days ago.

  
Jemma pushed those memories away, focusing on the one phrase that would keep her alive in this situation. “I— Yes.”

  
“Say it.”

  
“I-I’m loyal to Hydra.” The words tasted bitter in Jemma’s mouth and even she could hear the lie in them. She held her breath as she waited for Skye’s reaction.

  
Skye scanned her face for a moment longer. Her shoulders sagged and her face crumpled and she dropped her arm from Jemma’s throat. “You’re going to need to work on that. I don’t even believe you and I want to,” Skye muttered.

  
“W-What? What is happening?” Jemma demanded.

  
Skye finally looked up at her, but the intensity in her eyes was gone, replaced by tears threatening to overflow. “The higher ups are getting worried about that security breach. I think Ward set it up, but Bakshi’s still been working through the ranks, trying to weed people out. I-I was worried about you. I wanted to make sure you could lie convincingly under pressure.”

  
Jemma’s heart plummeted. If Hydra was trying to find people out, she knew she wouldn't last. “Why are you not—”

  
“Turning you in?” Skye supplied with a scoff. “That would kind of defeat the purpose of this warning. You should have a few day to back up as much intel as you can before we figure out a way to get you out of here. Everything’s on lockdown right now, so it’s going to be hard.”

  
“Y-You’re not—”

  
“What? A loyal Hydra tool bag? I feel like I should be offended,” Skye laughed humorlessly. “I’ve never been on board with this ‘discovery requires experimentation,’ Nazi crap they like to spout. The only reason I joined was because of Ward. He offered me a home and a purpose. It sounded perfect until I found out the truth.”

  
Jemma could feel a massive weight lift from her shoulders at Skye’s confession. Skye refused to meet Jemma’s eyes, but her hands were still fisting Jemma’s shirt with desperation.

  
“Even Ward’s not what I thought he was,” Skye continued. “He’s different than when he recruited me. Colder. Darker. More calculating. Maybe that’s who he always was and I just wasn’t ready to see it yet.”

  
Skye paused to collect herself. Jemma took advantage of her momentary silence to ask a question that she likely knew the answer to already. “Why don’t you leave?”

  
Skye scoffed. “You don’t leave Hydra. Not alive anyway. Once I walked in the front door, I was stuck. But, you.” Skye finally looked Jemma in the eyes, with absolute sincerity painted on her face. “You don’t deserve to be stuck here. I promise, I will get you out of here before anything happens to you,” Skye assured.

  
Jemma’s heart leaped. She finally had a way out. She still had to worry about Skye, though.

  
“How? Hydra will know that you helped me get out.”

  
“Haven’t gotten that far yet. But, I know and it’s worth the risk,” Skye replied.

  
Jemma’s heart squeezed. “Come with me. SHIELD can keep you safe and—”

  
Skye barked out a laugh. “I’m pretty sure every SHIELD agent has been told to shoot me on sight at this point. Don’t worry; I’ll figure something out.”

  
“I’m not letting you get hurt by trying to help me,” Jemma snapped. She’d always been told she was stubborn. Now, she was going to use that to her advantage.

  
“Why? I don’t deserve—”

  
“Yes, you do.”

  
“You don’t know what I’ve do—”

  
Jemma grasped Skye’s face in both her hands and forced her to look at her. “None of that is you, Skye. You’re not like the rest of them. You don’t deserve this and I’m not letting you stay here and punish yourself for Hydra’s actions.”

  
Skye’s eyes filled with tears again as she gave Jemma a watery smile. “God, I love you.”

  
Skye surged forward and met Jemma’s lips with her own. It was a gentle kiss, but she poured all the emotions she was feeling into it and Jemma returned it with equal fervor, tangling her fingers in Skye’s hair.

  
All too soon, it was over and Skye was pulling away. She rested her forehead against Jemma’s as she slid her hands down to thread their fingers together, both content to relish in the closeness for awhile.

  
“You should probably get back to the lab before your boss realizes you’re gone,” Skye muttered, though it sounded like the last thing she wanted.

  
“Is there...anything else?” Jemma wondered.

  
Skye’s brow furrowed in confusion. “No? Were you expecting something else?”

  
Jemma could feel her face heat up. Maybe Tammy had been messing with her about the true purpose of The Garage. “N-No. I wasn’t expecting anything. I—Nope.”

  
Skye chuckled. “You know, you really are a terrible liar. Seriously, what is it? We’ve got all cards on the table now.”

  
Jemma really wished that she had kept her mouth shut. “It’s nothing. I-I just heard...rumors. About, uh, The Garage, and I thought— Well, it seems silly now…”

  
Skye looked baffled. Of course she was confused; Jemma wasn’t making any sense. Suddenly, Jemma could see the realization of what Jemma was implying creep across Skye’s face followed by a wicked grin.

  
“Really?”

  
Jemma blushed deeper and stuttered, “I-I mean, it’s not...we don’t...if you don’t want—”

  
“You think your boss could spare you for a little longer?”

  
Jemma nodded insistently. Skye fumbled around Jemma’s back for the SUV’s door handle and, once located, she jerked the door open and helped Jemma shuffle into the back seat.

  
Jemma scooted across the seat until her back was pressed against the opposite door. Skye quickly hopped in right after Jemma, closing the door and sliding across the bench seat until she was straddling Jemma’s lap. Her fingers tangled in Jemma’s hair as she pulled her in for a searing kiss. Jemma’s hands slid under the hem of Skye’s shirt, stroking the warm skin underneath.

  
“Any other secrets I should know about before we continue?” Jemma mumbled against Skye’s lips.

  
Skye stilled and pulled back slightly. A small whine escaped from Jemma’s throat. She had just been teasing.

  
“Actually, yes,” Skye replied, “My name’s not Skye.”

  
Jemma blinked. “Yes, I know that. You already told me about your terrible legal name.” She impatiently pulled Skye back down.

  
“That’s not what I meant. I mean my birth name.” Skye dug into her bra and pulled out a tiny computer chip. “A few years ago, I found my birth parents and my birth certificate. My name’s Daisy Johnson.”

  
Jemma was stunned. “That’s wonderful. What about your parents?”

  
“Cal and Jiaying Johnson. They’re alive and well and live in Milwaukee. Dad’s a vet and mom’s a teacher. Everything I found was buried under five layers of false trails and encrypting, for some reason. I downloaded it all to this,” she gestured to the chip in her hand, “and then wiped everything from the records.”

  
“Are you going to go see them?”

  
Skye—Daisy shook her head sadly. “The less they know about me the better. It’s probably safer for them that I stay away. Here.” Skye held the tiny chip out to Jemma. “Keep this safe for me and once you get back to SHIELD, have someone keep an eye on them. I was pretty thorough when destroying any trails to them, but just in case, I’d like to have someone looking out for them.”

  
“I can’t take that. It’s all you have,” Jemma protested.

  
“And I want you to have it,” Daisy replied. “It’s probably safer with you, anyway.”

  
Jemma cautiously took it and tucked it away the same way Daisy had.

  
“So, what do I call you now?”

  
“You can call me whatever you want,” Daisy said, leaning in for a gentle kiss. “When we’re out there, though, let’s stick with ‘Skye.’ I’d rather Hydra not know.”

  
Jemma hummed in assent before muttering, “Daisy,” rolling the name over her tongue.

  
Daisy made a noise like a purr while peppering kisses down Jemma’s neck. Her hands slid under the hem of Jemma’s shirt, tracing over her skin. She sucked on a spot on Jemma’s neck while her fingers slid down to the waistband of Jemma’s pants, deftly unhooked the button, and tugged them down slightly, lightly scraping her nails over the skin of Jemma’s hips.

  
Barely a week ago, Jemma would have felt far too vulnerable in this position. Now, however, she felt like she finally knew where Daisy’s loyalties lie, and that they were not with Hydra. The sharp corners of the microchip dug into Jemma’s skin, reminding her of the trust Daisy had put in her with her confession.

  
Jemma was pulled out of her thoughts by the feeling of a finger ghosting over her entrance. A startled cry erupted from her mouth, which Daisy quickly silenced with her lips.

  
“Careful,” she teased. “These cars are bulletproof, not soundproof.”

  
Daisy returned her attention to Jemma’s neck, nipping and kissing her way to Jemma’s collarbone, as she slipped her finger in. Jemma bit down hard on her lip to keep from making a sound. She wrapped her arms around Daisy’s neck to pull her closer and arched into Daisy’s touch.

  
Daisy muttered sweet nothings against Jemma’s neck. Jemma couldn't focus on what she was saying once Daisy slid another finger beside the first and rhythmically thrusted them inside Jemma.

  
Jemma could feel pressure building up in her core and dug her fingers into Daisy’s scalp. Daisy growled in response and thrust her fingers even deeper. She shifted her wrist slightly so the heel of her hand was pressing into Jemma’s clit while she curled her fingers.  
The jolt of pleasure nearly sent Jemma over the edge. “Do that again,” she breathed.

  
Daisy repeated the motion, returning to Jemma’s lips and alternating between licking into Jemma’s mouth and tugging on her bottom lip with her teeth.

  
One more thrust and Jemma felt the pleasure overtake her. The breathy moan that she couldn’t hold back was silenced by Daisy’s lips as she rode out her orgasm.

  
As she came down, Daisy rested her forehead against Jemma’s and stared into her eyes.

  
“Alright?” Daisy asked, a bit breathless herself.

  
Jemma couldn’t tell if she was asking ‘are you alright?’ or ‘was that alright?’ Either way, she nodded fervently. Daisy responded with a wide grin and began kissing her way down Jemma’s chest, unbuttoning her shirt along the way.

  
Before she could get very far, Daisy’s phone chirped insistently in her back pocket. Jemma could feel the vibrations of Daisy’s frustrated growl against her sternum.

  
“Do you need to get that?” Jemma muttered, trying to keep the whine out of her voice. She didn’t want Daisy to stop, but she also didn’t want their cover blown if she missed something important.

  
“No.”

  
“Daisy.”

  
Daisy groaned and dug into her pocket to extract the offending phone. She glared at the message on the screen briefly.

  
“I’ve got an emergency meeting upstairs, apparently,” she grumbled. “I hate to be that girl, but it sounds pretty important.”

  
“I understand, D-Skye. Maybe, once you’re done there, you could come up to my apartment and we could—”

  
“Talk strategy?” Daisy suggested, lacing the phrase with as much innuendo as she could.

  
Jemma snorted. “Yes, that.” She pulled Daisy down for one last heated kiss before pushing her gently towards the door. “Now, go before you get in trouble.”

  
Daisy smirked. “Alright, I’m going. This shouldn’t take more than a few hours, so I’ll be up later tonight.”

  
She shot Jemma a wink before silently slipping out the door and disappearing into the garage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, finally got to some good stuff. Here's where it starts to get fun!  
> Fun fact: the last bit was one of the first scenes I mentally plotted out for this story. Which is the only reason I didn't manage to skip the sex scene, because the plot of the chapter kind of needed it. But damn, writing smut is hard.


	10. Turn Me Into Someone Like You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy disappears after their talk in the garage and Jemma fears the worst.

‘A few hours’ turned into the whole night, which turned into a few days. Jemma supposed she should be used to Skye—Daisy disappearing for days at a time at this point, but not when she promised to be here.

  
Jemma started to get concerned after a few more days passed. Daisy didn’t come to the lab and she would have told Jemma if she was being sent on a mission. Or so she hoped. Jemma’s imagination crafted the worst possible scenarios for Daisy’s absence.

  
Jemma twirled the tiny computer chip she was entrusted with between her fingers. After a week with no sign of Daisy, she was convinced that everything was an elaborate lie designed to make Jemma admit her lack of loyalty to Hydra. There probably wasn’t anything on the chip, it was just a prop. She might as well throw it away and wait for Hydra to break down her door.

  
But what if it was the truth?

  
Finally, Jemma couldn’t take not knowing. She jumped off the couch and powered up the ancient computer on her desk. Of course it didn’t connect to the internet, and most of its programs were so out of date they were basically useless. Thankfully, it had the required drive for the chip built into it. Jemma felt a slight pang of guilt for prying into Daisy’s private files, but she had to know for sure. Jemma selected all the files on the chip and waited for them to open.

  
The first file item in the folder was a scanned photo of a young couple propped up in a hospital bed. Both looked bedraggled, but they were smiling fondly at the camera with a small bundle of blankets cradled in the woman’s arms. Even without knowing the couple, Jemma could recognize Daisy’s eyes on the woman and her smile from the man.

  
Jemma clicked away from the photo, feeling like she was intruding on a private moment, despite knowing the moment had long passed. The next file was a birth certificate, with all the legally required signatures and stamps. Name: Daisy Johnson. Date of Birth: July 2, 1988. Father: Calvin Johnson. Mother: Jiaying Johnson. Everything was as Daisy said it was.

  
Jemma should shut it down at this point, but her curiosity overwhelmed her. She flicked through more of the files, mostly legal documents. Social security numbers, a letter from a bank approving a loan for a house, the address for Cal’s veterinary practice, all the pieces to form a happy suburban life.

  
One of the last documents was a scan of a handwritten note addressed only to ‘Nick.’ The letter was written in a hasty scrawl and bits were scratched out here and there, so only a few parts were actually legible. Jemma could make out the words ‘Hydra’ and ‘not safe’ in the first paragraph. The rest seemed to be imploring some assistance from ‘Nick,’ but exactly what they wanted wasn’t specified. At the end of the letter was a looping signature that read ‘Cal.’

  
The final document was an admittance form to St. Agnes’ Orphanage, bearing the name Mary Sue Poots and a small picture of a brown-haired baby. Most of the spaces were left blank on this form. Date of Birth: Unknown. Parents: Presumed deceased. A note jotted along the bottom stated that she was left on the doorstep of the orphanage.

  
Jemma didn’t realize that tears had welled up in her eyes until she felt them slide down her cheeks. She could only imagine how Daisy felt sorting through these documents. The promise of a normal, happy life was detailed in each file, and yet it was all taken away.   
She wasn’t sure why Hydra would be going after Daisy’s family, but they had given up their daughter in the hope that she could escape them. And Hydra had gotten her anyway. It made Jemma sick.

  
She closed the files and ejected the chip, tucking it safely away, close to her heart. Now she knew the truth at least. All there was to do was to wait.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
Daisy reappeared nearly two weeks after their conversation in the garage. Jemma had happened to glance up from her work, when she noticed the familiar figure wandering the hall outside the lab. She dropped everything and practically ran into the hallway.   
“D-Skye! Where have you been?”

  
She tried not to sound to accusatory, but after two weeks she had a right to demand an explanation. Daisy looked at her and blinked a few times, before her brows furrowed together in confusion.

  
“I- Uh. Home, I think. I wasn’t feeling good the other day, so I left early.” Daisy asked. She glanced around the hallway, looking dazed.

  
Something was wrong. “Are you alright?” Jemma asked, reaching up to feel Daisy’s head for a fever.

  
“Yeah, yeah, I think so. Uh, this might be a stupid question, but what day is it?”

  
“Friday. I haven’t seen you in two weeks,” Jemma replied.

  
“Two—Wow. I’m not sure what I had. I don’t remember much, so I guess I spent most of it sleeping. Did I miss anything important?”

Daisy wondered.

  
Jemma inspected her for a moment before responding. “Nothing too important. You were just planning on coming over to my apartment at some point.”

  
Daisy’s face fell. “Oh. I am so sorry. I-I don’t—”

  
“It’s fine.” Jemma waved her off. “You obviously were very sick and needed your rest.”

  
“Let me make it up to you,” Daisy insisted, “We can go out tomorrow night, if you’d like. I think the security lock down is over now.”  
Jemma nodded. She had been hoping they could get away from the Hydra building so they could discuss a possible plan of escape.

  
Daisy smiled. “Great. I— Uh, should probably go see what work I’ve missed. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

  
“Of course.”

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
They went through the typical checkout process at the security desk the next evening. There was far less fuss than Jemma expected since the security breach, which was fortunate because she had slipped a hard drive full of all the research she had done at Hydra into her bag before leaving the apartment. Just in case she figured out a way to get it to someone in SHIELD. They strolled around downtown, stopping at a street vendor for food, before doing some sightseeing.

  
Daisy still seemed off, but as the night went on, she started to act more like herself. She threaded her fingers between Jemma’s and cracked some terrible jokes like everything was normal, but her gaze would occasionally drift into the distance and she would frown like she was trying to remember something.

  
Jemma wanted to comment, but she wasn’t sure if that was a residual effect of whatever illness had laid Daisy up for two weeks. She started to get concerned when she noticed Daisy rubbing her wrists, almost compulsively, every few minutes.

  
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Jemma asked, interrupting whatever story Daisy was telling.

  
Daisy raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

  
Jemma examined her for a moment longer. “Nothing. You just seem...different.”

  
“Good different?” Daisy asked with a smirk.

  
“I’m not sure yet,” Jemma muttered. “Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?”

  
Daisy sighed. “Jemma, I’m fine. I promise. I feel great. Whatever I had just took awhile to go away.”

  
She reached forward to brush a piece of hair away from Jemma’s face. Jemma leaned into the touch slightly, trying to take reassurance from her words. As Daisy withdrew her hand, Jemma noticed her sleeve had ridden up slightly, exposing a sliver of skin covered in a dark purplish mark.

  
“What’s that?” Jemma grabbed Daisy’s hand and tried to roll her sleeve up further to see the mark.

  
Daisy jerked her hand away. “Nothing. It’s nothing. Do you want to walk through the park? That’s sounds really nice right now.”

  
Jemma’s eyes narrowed, but she followed after Daisy as she headed towards the park. She didn’t know why Daisy would want to walk through the park at this hour, but she seemed determined.

  
“Once we’re there, can we at least talk about what happened in the garage?” Jemma asked. “The conversation we had?”

  
“You mean our plan? Yeah, I just want to get somewhere a little more quiet first. You never know who’s listening,” Daisy replied.

  
That was a fair point. Daisy seemed to relax again once they were far enough along the park trails that they couldn’t see the nearby street. They walked in silence for a few minutes. As anxious as Jemma was to start orchestrating an exit strategy, she was content to let Daisy relax among the trees and stars for awhile.

  
“Lovely night, isn’t it?” a deep voice asked from behind them. Jemma whipped around.

  
Stepping out of the shadows of the trees was Grant Ward. He leaned casually against a tree, as if were a complete coincidence that he ended up in the same empty park as Jemma and Daisy.

  
“Ward? What are you doing here?” Daisy asked. She slowly wrapped her fingers around Jemma’s wrist and tugged her slightly behind herself. Good thing Jemma wasn’t the only one getting a threatening vibe from Ward.

  
He just shrugged. “I just wanted to tell you that our bet is off.” He gestured to Jemma. “We don’t need to waste anymore time on Dr. Simmons. She doesn’t have any intel that we couldn’t easily get from other sources. Besides, we’ve got bigger targets in our sights.”

  
“What are you talking about?”

  
“Don’t worry. Since Whitehall pulled the plug on the arrangement, you didn’t technically lose. I’ll still buy you dinner,” Ward replied, pushing off the tree and strolling towards them.

  
Jemma felt her heart drop at the idea that she was part of a bet, but Daisy’s hand still gripped her wrist and she gave it a reassuring squeeze as Ward advanced.

  
“First, we have some business to take care of,” Ward stated.

  
“And what kind of business would that be?” Daisy spat.

  
“Take a deep breath.”

  
“What?”

  
“Skye, take a deep breath. Calm your mind. You know what is best. What is best is that you comply,” Ward recited.

  
Daisy’s face contorted with pain and her hands shot up to grip her temples. “What are you doing?”

  
“Skye!” Jemma shouted as Daisy groaned in pain. She had heard rumors about this procedure, but she had never seen it used. Jemma knew she had to stop Ward from finishing it, though.

  
She snatched a fallen branch off the ground and lunged at Ward. He quickly disarmed her and jerked her arm behind in back to immobilize her. She could feel that if he put any more pressure against it, he would probably break her arm.

  
“Now, you don’t want to miss this Dr. Simmons,” Ward muttered in her ear as she struggled. “Your compliance will be rewarded. Skye, are you ready to comply?”

  
Daisy’s hands fell from her hand and hung straight by her sides. Her hunched over posture relaxed so she was standing fully alert, staring at Ward. The pained look melted from her face, leaving her expression impassive. Even the light in her eyes seemed to dull as she stared ahead blankly. When she finally spoke, it hardly sounded like Daisy’s voice.

  
“Happy to comply.”


	11. Drowning In Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma tries to break the control of Daisy's brainwashing before Ward makes her do something she'll regret...

10 days ago

   Daisy practically bounced out of the garage. She was feeling euphoric, and only part of that was finally seeing Jemma completely undone beneath her. Jemma finally knew her secret. Daisy had hated keeping things from her. She hated the idea that Jemma would only ever look at her as a Hydra agent. Now, she didn’t have to worry about that, though. If it was the last thing she did, Daisy was going to get Jemma far away from Hydra.

  
   Daisy detoured down one of the branched off hallways. She had a stop to make before she went up for her meeting with Whitehall and Ward.

  
   She slipped into the storage room past the sleeping security guard (they wondered why they kept having security issues). Luckily, the boxes lining the shelves were organized by case number and Daisy had long ago memorized Jemma’s case number.

  
   She located the box and rummaged around until she found the one bag that was designated Jemma’s and tugged it out. The only contents were a SHIELD ID card and a cell phone. Daisy smirked to herself when she remembered confiscating the items from Jemma. The phone had been stuck in one of Jemma’s back pockets and she had almost kicked Daisy in the shins when she reached for it.

  
   She tucked the items into her pocket and closed up the box, before slipping out of the room unnoticed. Once she finished up her meeting, she could go meet Jemma and give her back her things. They could be a combination “sorry for kidnapping you” present and a way to get Jemma out of here. Hydra was a bit dumb about technology and all they did to disable cell phones was turn them off. Jemma could easily get a call to her SHIELD team and have them come extract her before Hydra realized that they had a breach.

  
Daisy strolled up to Whitehall’s office, taking her sweet time up the hall. The hair on the back of her neck prickled the closer she got to the office. Something about Whitehall was unsettling but she couldn’t place why. Maybe it was just the sleazy smile we always seem to have spread across his lips, like he knew something that no one else did. Or maybe it was the way his eyes always landed on Daisy like she was a piece of meat that he was dying to cut into. Either way, she did her best to avoid interacting with him.

  
   A guard was positioned in front of the double doors that led into Whitehall’s office. As she approached, the guard appraised her briefly before stepping aside and pushing the door open. Daisy squared her shoulders and tried to don her cocky Hydra agent persona as she stepped into the office.

  
   She was pretty sure this one room was bigger than her apartment. The wall opposite the doors was entirely glass, providing a panoramic view of downtown Boston. There was a bar off to one side of the office, right next to a portion of the room where the dark hardwood floors gave way to while tile.

  
   Directly opposite her, perched behind a massive mahogany desk, sat the man himself: Daniel Whitehall. His white hair and old-fashioned gray suit made him appear much older than his face seemed to indicate.

  
 He smiled gently at her and something in it made a shudder run up Daisy’s spine, but she tried to repress it.

  
“Ah, Agent Skye. Glad you could join us. Please, sit,” Whitehall greeted, gesturing to a plush chair across from his own desk. Ward was settled in an identical chair beside the other with a somber expression. Daisy gingerly sat, trying to mask her nervousness.  
“I heard you took care of a security threat a few days ago,” Whitehall began.

  
Daisy nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  
“According to Ward, you hesitated. Care to explain why?”

  
Daisy fought to keep her heart rate steady and her face impassive. “I was worried that the blood might upset some of the experiments the techs were working on. You know how they can be pains in the ass about their work space.” She shrugged.

  
Whitehall nodded. “Understandable. I haven’t heard any complaints of that variety, so hopefully we avoided that scenario.”

  
Daisy nodded. She could feel Ward’s eyes on her, so she assumed that this wasn’t the only purpose of this meeting.

  
Whitehall stood suddenly. “Come over here. I want to show you something.”

  
Ward slipped from his chair and moved to follow Whitehall, so Daisy did the same. He strolled over to the bar and pulled out a decanter of honey-colored alcohol and poured a single glass, before gesturing them to follow him over to the screen that was mounted on a white wall in the tiled portion of the room.

  
“I’ve always been fascinated by how information travels. In the past, people used crude drawings on the walls of caves to tell stories. Then, we started using things like carrier pigeons and messengers to convey information,” Whitehall said. “We had to come up with so many innovative ways to tell each other things. Now, we can hardly stop sending each other information.”

  
Whitehall spoke like he was discussing a particularly interesting work of art in a museum. Daisy was still waiting for the point.

  
“Isn’t it fascinating how once something is repeated enough times, people will just assume it’s true?” Whitehall smiled. “Like how everyone believes that the Vikings wore horned helmets, or that the garage has no security cameras.”

  
Daisy’s stomach plummeted. A guard she hadn’t noticed before was now positioned inside the door, blocking her exit. Whitehall clicked a button on a small remote and pulled up video feed from the garage.

  
Daisy saw herself on the screen dart into the room and start searching the cars for other slacking employees. She kept her expression schooled into indifference, praying that she was just getting reprimanded for screwing around on the clock.

  
“For a time, that was true. Then we realized the potential of that ‘common knowledge’ that our agents love to spread around. Of course, we had to spend extra on the audio feed,” Whitehall continued.

  
He pushed another button and Daisy heard her conversation with Jemma filtering through the speakers. She squeezed her eyes shut, somehow hoping to stop the words she knew would be coming out of her mouth on the video.

  
“— I’ve never been on board with this ‘discovery requires experimentation,’ Nazi crap they like to spout—”

  
Daisy’s mind raced, trying to figure out how to talk her way out of this. It wasn’t looking good. Ward paced into her line of vision, his arms crossed firmly over his chest as he leveled her with a disappointed glare.

  
Whitehall silently watched the rest of the conversation on the screen play out. He had clearly watched through it many times before Daisy had arrived. Neither he nor Ward seemed surprised at anything that was said.

  
Once it reached the point where Jemma and Daisy were crawling into the backseat of the SUV, he paused the video.

  
“Security stopped watching at that point. They had gotten the important information and didn’t need to see their cars defiled anymore,” Whitehall informed. “We should really give them a raise, don’t you think?”    

  
He directed the last part to Ward who quirked an eyebrow slightly. Whitehall seemed downright jovial, so he wasn’t deterred.

  
“It’s a shame, Agent Skye. You’ve done some excellent work in the past and, with all the trouble we went through to recruit you, one would hope that you would be a little more willing to comply with Hydra’s ideals.” Whitehall strolled towards her. “Don’t worry, you’re still quite valuable to us. We won’t kill you.”

  
Daisy wanted to kick herself for being slightly relieved.

  
“We will, however, make you comply.”

  
Daisy went numb. She briefly thought of the knife that she kept strapped to her thigh. Whitehall was close enough that she could slash his throat before he knew what hit him. Then, she would just need to fight through Ward and the security grunts.

  
Ward would be the hard part. Despite what she told Jemma, she still owed a lot to Ward. She didn’t know if she had in it herself to kill him.

  
Her thoughts gave her away in the slight twitch of her fingers towards the knife. A hand clamped around her wrist, jerking it above her head. Before she could fight against it, a thick metal clamped was snapped tightly around her wrist.

  
She thrashed against the restraint. Ward stalked around her to grab her other wrist and pull it into the same position.

  
“Ward, please,” Daisy begged. “Don’t do this to me.”

  
His face was a mask, giving no indication of emotion as he wrestled her into the restraints. After her wrists were secure, he crouched down to clamp down her ankles.

  
Daisy pulled up against the clamps on her wrists, using them to hold her body up as she kicked out at Ward. Her feet connected with his shoulders sending him stumbling backwards. She used the momentary distraction to throw her weight against the contraption holding her, hoping she could knock something loose.

  
No such luck. The cold metal bit into her wrists, but showed no signs of budging. The entire thing seemed to be bolted to the floor. Whitehall stood a fair distance away, sipping on his scotch and undisturbed by the struggle in front of him.

  
Ward recovered and growled at her, before throwing a punch into Daisy’s stomach. The wind was knocked out of her long enough for Ward to clamp her ankles into place.

  
“I figured you would be a fighter,” Whitehall remarked. “This should prove interesting.”

  
Ward continued moving around the contraption, snapping straps around Daisy’s waist and thighs to further prevent her from moving. Whitehall clicked the remote to bring up a loop of some kaleidoscopic video on the screen Daisy was now forced to face.

  
“This might take awhile, but this is the most effective method for these kind of situations.” Now that Daisy was effectively restrained, Whitehall stepped towards Daisy, so close that she could smell the scotch on his breath.

  
“Not to worry. I have plenty of patience. Now, Skye, are you going to comply?”

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Present

 Ward released Jemma with a shove, sending her stumbling forward. This would be the perfect opportunity to run, but Jemma couldn’t leave Daisy like this. Daisy’s gaze was firmly fixed on Ward and her posture remained soldier-like.

  
 “D-Skye?” Jemma tried.

  
 No response.

  
“She’s not going to listen to you,” Ward said, sauntering towards Daisy. “She’s been programmed to only respond to me.”

  
“You can’t program a human,” Jemma spat.

  
“That’s where you’re wrong Doctor Simmons.” Ward wagged a finger at her. “That’s the kind of limited thinking that will ensure that Hydra always wins. We think outside of limits of ‘morals’ and ‘ethics’ and look what we can do.” He gestured to Daisy. “You could have been a part of this, too.”

  
Jemma growled. “I would never join Hydra.”

  
Ward shrugged, all his mannerisms suggesting that this entire situation was boring him. “I know. That’s the one thing SHIELD has on us.”

  
“Loyalty?”

  
“I was going to say ‘idiotic stubbornness,’” Ward replied, shrugging again. “I knew you would never join us voluntarily. Skye thought she could convince you, though. Little did we know, she wasn’t on our side either.”

  
Ward turned his attention to Daisy, who hadn’t reacted to anything he said. Jemma’s stomach rolled. All she wanted was for Daisy to make some snarky comment or make a face at Ward’s back. Anything but the blank expression and stiff posture she seemed locked in.  
Ward spoke again. He really loved the sound of his own voice.

  
“So, Skye, you’re going to listen to everything I say, right?” Ward asked.

  
“Yes.” Daisy’s voice was hollow.

  
“And if I ask you a question you have to answer truthfully?”

  
“Yes.”

  
“Good. First, have you ever been loyal to Hydra?”

  
“No.”

  
Jemma winced. Somehow, Ward already knew, but hearing Daisy say it out loud seemed like another nail in the coffin.

  
“Shame,” Ward muttered, “Was there any chance of Doctor Simmons being loyal to Hydra?”

  
“No.”

  
“Never?”

  
“Never.”

  
Ward nodded thoughtfully. He shot Jemma an appraising glance. “Now, about Simmons. Did you only express interest as part of our bet?”

  
“At first.”

  
That seemed to surprise Ward. “So, what? Do you actually have feelings for her?”

  
Daisy’s eyes flickered to Jemma, but her expression remained blank and lifeless. “Yes.”

  
Ward’s eyes flashed briefly with anger, before sliding back into indifference. “That’s a real shame. Then, this is going to hurt both of you. Skye? Shoot Doctor Simmons.”

  
In a flash, Daisy’s gun was out and pointed at Jemma’s chest. Jemma held her hands up, hoping to delay the command.

  
“Skye, please. You don’t want to do this,” Jemma pleaded.

  
Ward paced behind Daisy. “I think she really does,” he insisted.

  
Daisy clicked off the safety with her thumb and cocked it.

  
“Skye, I know you’re in there. Please fight it.”

  
No reaction. Jemma saw her finger hover over the trigger. She had one last resort. She only hoped Daisy wouldn’t hate her for it.

  
“ _Daisy_ , please!” Jemma cried.

  
Finally, a flicker of recognition flashed in her eyes. Daisy’s brow furrowed slightly, before noticing the gun trained on Jemma. She gasped and dropped the gun with her face contorted in disgust.

  
“Jemma. I--” Daisy stammered. She groaned and fisted her hands in her hair. “What did you do to me?” She demanded at Ward.  
Ward looked baffled. “‘Daisy?’ It seems there’s still some things you’re not telling us. I was hoping to make this cleaner, but--”

  
Before Jemma realized he was moving, Ward had crossed the short distance between them. Jemma saw a quick flash of silver before a blinding pain sliced through her chest right under her ribs.

  
“ _Jemma_!”

  
She looked down and noticed the hilt of a knife sticking out of her abdomen. Her hand hovered over it, before clamping around the base trying to stem the flow of blood. Instinct told her to pull the knife out, but her medical training told her not to. Her mind whirred, trying to self-diagnose, but all she was registering was pain.

  
More pain shot through her knees and suddenly, she was closer to the ground. Warm hands cupped her face, but it took her a few moments to register the worried brown eyes taking up her field of vision.

  
“--mma? Jemma, can you hear me? Listen, you’re going to be okay, alright? Just hold on, we’ll get you out of this,” Daisy insisted.

  
Even in her state, Jemma could tell Daisy didn’t believe her own words. Tears welled in the corner of Daisy’s eyes, and Jemma wanted to comfort her in some way. Every time she tried to speak, though, pain would lance through her side.

  
Ward loomed at the corner of her vision, glaring down at Daisy. “Now, let’s try this again. Skye, or ‘Daisy,’ whoever. Take a deep breath. You know what is best--”

  
Daisy’s face twisted in pain again. “Shut up!” She screamed.

  
Ward’s words started to melt together, as Jemma’s vision blurred. Daisy growled and her hands slid from Jemma’s cheeks. Jemma pawed at the empty air in front of her, trying to call Daisy back. Ward could wait; she wanted Daisy close right now.

  
Darkness crept into the corners of her vision and the world tilted on its axis. The last thing Jemma saw was a figure crumple to the ground in front of her, before everything faded to black. 


	12. So Glad We're Here and Going Strong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma deals with the fallout from the encounter with Ward.

A rhythmic beeping pulled Jemma into consciousness. The light beating on her eyelids was soft, but she had no desire to open her eyes. Her limbs felt like lead and there was something constricting her chest, which made breathing deeply difficult.

  
Jemma finally forced her eyes open. Once her eyes adjusted to the low, fluorescent lighting, she took in the simply patterned wallpaper and charts hanging off the walls. That, combined with the thin blankets draped over her legs, told her that she was clearly in a hospital room.

  
Jemma tried to piece together the events that led her here. She remembered Ward, a knife, then pain, blood. Daisy’s teary eyes staring into her own, assuring her everything would be okay. A body hitting the ground.

  
Jemma’s heart sank.

  
A slight movement in her peripheral vision drew Jemma’s attention. Curled up in a worn armchair beside her bed was Daisy, looking essentially unharmed. Jemma breathed out a sigh of relief. Daisy’s feet dangled over the arm of the chair and her arms curled tightly around herself as her chest rose and fell slowly.

  
Jemma smiled to herself at the sight. Daisy looked so peaceful, Jemma didn’t want to disturb her.

  
Jemma pushed herself up in bed, but stopped with a gasp at the sudden lance of pain through her chest. Apparently, whatever pain medication she was on didn’t factor in movement.

  
At the spike of pain, the beeping of Jemma’s heart rate monitor sped up, which was enough to rouse Daisy. In a second, she was wide-eyed, one hand flashing to her hip and eyes darting towards the door. Once she was sure there was no threat, her gaze shifted to Jemma and softened.

  
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Jemma apologized. Her voice cracked and sounded shaky.

  
“Hey, no, I’m glad you did,” Daisy replied with a grin and scooted her chair closer to Jemma’s bedside. “I— They told me you might not—”

  
Daisy cut herself off as tears welled in her eyes. Jemma reached over and took her hand, which took an immense amount of effort. It was worth it for the watery smile Daisy gave her and the reassuring squeeze.

  
Jemma had so many things she needed to know, but she didn’t think she could muster up the energy to ask all of them. She settled for one. “What happened?”

  
“After you passed out, I managed to get you to the main street and someone called an ambulance. The doctor said it was a clean cut, so there wasn’t too much damage, just a lot of blood. I also told them you were my wife, so I could stay in here.” Daisy chuckled. “Congratulations, Mrs. Doctor Johnson.”

  
“That’s not how titles work, Daisy,” Jemma replied with a smile. The name, which now slid effortlessly out of her mouth, pulled up another memory. “Wait, Ward. He knows about—”

  
The smile slid off Daisy’s face and her expression darkened. “He’s— I took care of him.”

  
Jemma squeezed Daisy’s hand in a comforting gesture. She knew that Daisy still felt indebted to Ward. It couldn’t have been easy to turn her back on that, but Jemma was grateful she did.

  
“I also, um—I called SHIELD,” Daisy said.

  
“Wait, what?”

  
Daisy released Jemma’s hand and dug into one of her pockets. She pulled out a phone that, as she turned it over in her hands, Jemma clearly recognized as her own.

  
“When did you—”

  
“I grabbed it from storage right before the—” Daisy trailed off, waving vaguely to her head to indicate the brainwashing. “I was going to give it to you on our date, but then all...that happened. Hydra’s going to be coming after us, so I figured the safest place for you to be is back with SHIELD. I recognized the name ‘Coulson’ that was saved in your phone, so I called him while you were in surgery and told him where you were. He’s sending a team to come get you.”

  
Jemma’s vision was blurred by tears, but they were tears of happiness. The Hydra nightmare was finally over. “Thank you, Daisy. I don’t even know what to say.”

  
“I’m just glad you’re finally going to be safe. I’m not sure where the team is flying in from, but I’d estimate that they’ll be getting here soon.” Daisy pulled her eyes off Jemma to look at the floor. “Which is why I should be going.”

  
Jemma felt like her heart stopped, despite the protesting heart monitor. “What? No, you— you can…”

  
“I’m sorry, Jemma. There’s no way SHIELD is letting me walk out of here. My reputation at Hydra is enough reason for them to shoot me on sight. Not to mention I just told them one of their agents, who I kidnapped from their own facility, is in the hospital. Also, I really don’t think Coulson likes being hung up on.”

  
Daisy’s attempt at humor did nothing to stop Jemma’s mind from reeling. Unfortunately, Daisy had a good point. SHIELD didn’t make it a policy to forgive Hydra agents, especially not ones with such a long history of directly attacking SHIELD. “Please, don’t go, We’ll figure something out.”

  
Daisy smiled sadly. “It’s already figured out. You’ll be safe back at SHIELD and I’ll keep Hydra off your trail. I have your number now, so I might be able to call...someday.”

  
Daisy placed Jemma’s phone on the bedside table, before she reached into her shirt and pulled out the computer chip containing her identity.

  
“Remember what I said about keeping them safe. Just in case.”

  
Daisy’s voice cracked at the end and she placed the chip beside the phone. Jemma’s already weak voice couldn't work around the lump in her throat to form the words that would stop Daisy from leaving. If she’d been able to, Jemma would have planted herself in front of the door and demanded that Daisy stay until they figured out an option where everyone won. But she wasn’t. She could hardly move, much less force a well-trained agent to stay when she was determined to leave.

  
Daisy rose and leaned over Jemma. She brushed a strand of hair off Jemma’s forehead and placed a firm kiss to it.

  
As she pulled back, rushed footsteps stomped down the hall outside and the door to Jemma’s room flung open. A frazzled blonde dove into the room, eyes immediately landing on Jemma.

  
“Simmons! Are you—” Bobbi’s gaze found Daisy and her face darkened with rage. “ _You_!”

  
Daisy barely had time to mumble a curse before Bobbi landed a hard kick to her chest.

  
“Bobbi, wait!” Jemma tried to say. Her words were so weak, Bobbi didn’t hear them and snapped out her batons to launch at Daisy again.   
Daisy ducked the swing and twisted to the side to dodge another kick. Daisy didn’t try a single attack and defended herself from Bobbi’s furious swings.

  
Jemma mustered up all her strength and shouted, “Bobbi, stop! She’s on our side.”

  
Bobbi heard her this time, which was extremely lucky because she now had Daisy pinned against the wall by her throat, with the electric end of her baton sparking inches from Daisy’s face. Bobbi froze, shooting Jemma a look like she thought Jemma had lost her mind.   
“What? Simmons, she kidnapped you. And landed you in the hospital with a knife wound,” Bobbi hissed. Daisy squirmed against Bobbi’s grip and tried to dislodge Bobbi’s hand from her throat.

  
“I know. I’ll explain everything if you just put her down,” Jemma demanded.

  
Bobbi glanced between Daisy and Jemma, searching both of them. Daisy gave her an awkward smile and wiggled the fingers prying at Bobbi’s hand in a small wave.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
Bobbi refused to relax until Daisy had thick handcuffs snapped around her wrist and was planted in a chair as far away from Jemma as possible. Daisy’s face was a mask of indifference, but Jemma could see the tightness around her eyes every time she fidgeted with the cuffs. The splotchy purple bruises from whatever contraption Hydra used to brainwash her still peeked out from the edges of the cuffs.   
Bobbi had apparently been on a mission nearby when they got the call from Daisy, so she landed before the rest of the team. She stood between Daisy and Jemma, glaring daggers at Daisy in silence. Since Jemma was having difficulty speaking for long with the tight bandaging around her chest, Bobbi suggested they wait until the rest of the team arrived to here the full story of what happened.

  
Jemma was initially grateful for the consideration, but it ended up with them sitting in the most awkward silence imaginable. Every time Daisy would move to even scratch her nose, Bobbi’s fingers twitched towards her batons.

  
They were finally saved from the oppressive silence by Melinda May kicking in the door with her gun drawn and Director Coulson himself trailing right behind her. Jemma was flattered that the director would come to retrieve her himself.

  
Bobbi nodded a greeting to both of them. “The situation’s handled. We had a known Hydra agent who decided to stick around the scene of the crime.”

  
Bobbi nodded towards Daisy, drawing her to May’s and Coulson’s attention. Daisy rolled her eyes more aggressively than Jemma thought possible.

  
Coulson leveled Daisy with a stern look, which quickly faded into surprise. “Skye?”

  
Daisy fidgeted in her seat. “What up, AC?” she muttered, attempting to sound nonchalant.

  
Jemma’s jaw dropped and Bobbi seemed to have a similar expression. “You know each other?” Jemma asked in disbelief.

  
“Skye was on our watchlist for recruitment a few year ago. We met informally a few times, discussed the possibility of coming to work for us. Unfortunately, Hydra stepped in and made an offer before we did and she fell off the map,” Coulson explained.

  
Daisy shifted awkwardly under his gaze, like she was facing a disappointed parent. “Turned out to be a pretty crappy deal. They didn’t even have dental insurance.”

  
Coulson huffed a laugh. “I hate to break it to you, but SHIELD’s healthcare plan isn’t that great, either.”

  
Daisy wrinkled her nose in mock annoyance. “There’s always a catch.”

  
Jemma’s eyes darted between the two, bantering like old friends. No bullets flying, no threats of violence, none of the things that Jemma was bracing for happened.

  
Coulson directed his attention to Jemma. “Agent Simmons, glad to have you back. I’m sure these last few months have been hard for you, but we’ve done everything in our power to make sure this never happens again. We’ve arranged for your transfer to one of our hidden bases for your safety, in the wake of the Hydra ordeal.

  
“What happened to the mobile unit I was originally assigned to?” Jemma wondered.

  
“It had a bit of a...uh—disastrous field encounter.” Coulson grimaced.

  
“Someone blew it up,” May deadpanned, tossing a glare towards Daisy, who held her hands up in surrender.

  
“If you’d rather not work for us anymore, given our security failure at the lab, we can arrange a safehouse for you offsite,” Coulson offered.

  
Jemma glanced briefly to Daisy while she considered the offer. “Thank you, but I don’t know what I’d do without SHIELD. I’d like to continue working for you.”

  
Coulson smiled gently. “Glad to hear it. Agent Fitz will be happy to have someone to share the lab with.”

  
Jemma grinned widely at the thought of working with Fitz again.

  
“In the mean time,” Coulson continued, directing his attention to Daisy, “I think we have a lot to talk about, Skye.”

  
Coulson gestured out into the hallway and Daisy hopped out of her seat. “It’s Daisy now. Sir.”

  
“Daisy?”

  
Daisy nodded. “Yeah. I’ll explain everything. I don’t need these anymore, right?”

  
She dangled the handcuffs that had encircled her wrists from one finger, before tossing them on the foot of the hospital bed. She shot a wink at Bobbi, which only seemed to infuriate her more, before giving Jemma an apprehensive look.

  
“I’ll...see you around, I guess. Take care of yourself, okay?” Daisy muttered shyly.

  
Jemma gave her a warm smile. “Of course.”

  
Coulson stepped into the hallway, holding the door open for Daisy. A spike of anxiety pierced Jemma’s chest briefly as she watched Daisy leave. She wasn’t sure what Coulson had planned, but she hoped it would allow her to see Daisy again.

  
Now that everyone was here, Jemma pushed herself up in bed and began to tell them everything that had happened in the past few months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, y'all probably thought Daisy was gonna disappear to go on the run didn't you? I'm not that mean...maybe.  
> But here is the second to last chapter! It's been a ride guys!


	13. I'm Addicted To You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma recovers from her ordeal and finally gets back to SHIELD.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Jemma’s hospital room was constantly guarded by a SHIELD agent, in addition to there being an undercover agent stationed somewhere in the building to watch for potential Hydra threats. It put Jemma slightly at ease, but she still flinched any time there was any commotion in the hallway. 

More often than not, Bobbi was the agent who stayed in the room. Jemma used the extra time they had to catch up on everything SHIELD and the team had been doing the last few months. While the conversation flowed, it almost seemed like nothing had changed in the time Jemma was gone, but during the occasional lull, Jemma could see Bobbi peering at her with guilt etched on her features. 

Finally, after three weeks, Jemma was checked out of the hospital and was swept onto a quinjet to head to the base. Despite Bobbi’s protests, Jemma insisted on walking into the base from the hangar. She had been sitting for far too long already, and was anxious to move on her own again. 

Fitz was waiting for her once the plane landed. The hatch had hardly opened before he was jogging towards her, grinning from ear to ear. He threw his arms out to wrap her up in a tight  hug, but paused once he noticed Jemma still cradling her side while she walked and opted to lightly squeeze her shoulders instead. 

“Glad you’re back, Jemma,” Fitz greeted. 

“Glad to be back,” Jemma replied, beaming. “So, what have I missed.”

“Oh, hell, where do I start?”

With that, Fitz set off on a tirade about every project he had been working on the past months, and the big missions SHIELD had worked on (most of which Jemma had heard about from Bobbi already, but Fitz told the stories with much more exuberance). 

The sudden activity after three weeks of bedrest started to take a toll on Jemma’s stitches once they reached the hangar door and she tried to hold back the wince. Fitz noticed and slipped his shoulder under Jemma’s arm to give her a bit of extra support as the walked. 

Fitz was guiding Jemma to her new bunk while telling her about all the intel they had already pulled from the hard drive she salvaged, when Coulson strode towards them down the hall. 

“Doctor Simmons. Glad to see you up and about. Unfortunately, both your doctor at the hospital and Agent Morse have recommended at least two more weeks of downtime before we put you to work, so you’ll have some more time to recover,” Coulson said. 

Jemma groaned. “Two weeks? Really, I’m fine. I just need to sit for most—”

Coulson held up a hand. “It’s already decided,” he informed her with an amused smirk. “I don’t think you’ll have too much trouble filling the time, though. Your friend from Hydra’s in Vault D.”

Jemma’s heart raced as Coulson handed her a tablet and nodded in the direction of the vault. She pushed off Fitz’s shoulder, suddenly feeling much more energized. 

“She doesn’t need to deal with that right now, does she?” Fitz protested. “I mean, she’s already put Jemma through enough.”

Jemma and Coulson shared a knowing look. Whatever Daisy had told Coulson about their relationship surely wasn’t common knowledge around the base. 

“It’s fine, Fitz,” Jemma muttered, poking around the tablet to figure out the controls while she pushed through the vault door. 

“Really, Jemma. You just got back. Coulson’s interrogated her already, you don’t need to go down there yet,” Fitz argued. 

Jemma rolled her eyes and slowly shuffled down the steps, leaning against the wall as she went. Fitz trailed behind her, voicing his concerns about ‘facing trauma’ too soon or something. Jemma stopped listening when she came face-to-face with a white wall that stood out from the rest of the walls of the vault. She pushed a button on the tablet and the white wall melted away, leaving an orange grid. 

Perched on a rickety cot on the other side of the electric wall was Daisy, clad in loose fitting sweatpants and a plain gray shirt. She appeared to be attempting to fold a paper airplane, but once the solid wall faded, her head whipped in Jemma’s direction. 

Jemma’s heartbeat sped up as she took Daisy in. She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair hung limply around her face, but Jemma thought she had never looked so beautiful to her. Daisy squinted in her direction and her entire face lit up once she realized it was Jemma. She hopped off her cot and stepped as close to the grid wall as she comfortably could. Jemma noticed Daisy’s mouth moving, but no sound came through the wall. 

“Oops,” Jemma muttered. She held up a finger to Daisy while she prodded around the tablet some more. 

“Jemma, be careful with that. You don’t want to hit the wrong—”

Jemma ignored him and pushed a button that made the orange laser grid fade away. 

“—Button! You definitely don’t want to hit that one!” Fitz cried, snatching the tablet out of Jemma’s hands. 

Daisy tentatively poked a foot across the line that marked the boundary of the wall and took a full step across it with a wide grin plastered across her face once she realized she wouldn’t get electrocuted. Fitz managed to get the laser grid back up, but Daisy was already out of range of the line. 

Fitz rambled something about getting Coulson or May and he tried to look threatening, armed only with a small tablet, but Jemma’s attention was completely fixed on Daisy. 

Daisy closed the distance between them rapidly, also ignoring Fitz. In a few long steps, she was close enough to cup Jemma’s jaw and pull her into a firm but gentle kiss. Jemma could feel the smile on Daisy’s lips as she hummed contentedly against Jemma’s. 

Far too soon, Daisy pulled back. Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes as they searched Jemma’s face. Jemma’s fingers found Daisy’s hands still cupping her cheeks and stroked across the back of them while a giddy smile teased at her own lips. 

“Missed you,” Daisy muttered, leaning her forehead against Jemma’s. 

“I missed you, too,” Jemma replied. “Have they been treating you well?”

Daisy shrugged. “It’s no five-star hotel, but I’ve had worse. Coulson said it was just a precaution keeping me down here.”

Jemma chuckled. “Well, now that I’m back, you have more of an incentive to behave, so maybe we can do something about your rooming situation.”

Daisy groaned over-dramatically. “I _guess_ I’ll play nice. Only for you.”

Her tone was teasing, but Jemma could still hear the underlying fondness. 

An indignant noise from behind them cause the pair to turn around. Fitz’s mouth hung open in a dumbfounded stare and the control tablet was raised over his head as if he was going to use it as a weapon against Daisy. 

“What...the hell?” he hissed.

“Are you two done getting reacquainted?” Coulson’s voice called from the top of the stairs. 

Fitz glanced in disbelief between Jemma and Coulson. “You knew about this?” 

“Of course. Skye—”

“Daisy,” Jemma and Daisy corrected. 

“Damnit, sorry. Daisy was very forthcoming with information regarding Jemma’s time with Hydra. In fact, with her intel and the hard drive Jemma managed to extract, this was one of our most successful undercover missions within Hydra. Even if it was unintentional,” Coulson informed, strolling down the steps to meet the group on the floor of the vault.   
“Hell yeah!” Daisy exclaimed, holding her hand in air for a high-five. 

Jemma glared at her, but high-fived her anyway, not wanting to ruin the triumphant moment by reminding Daisy that the mission wasn’t voluntary on Jemma’s part. 

Coulson quirked an eyebrow at Daisy’s behavior, but continued talking. “Which is why I want to present you with this.”

He passed a small leather-bound object to Daisy, with the hint of small playing at his lips. Daisy tentatively took the object and flipped it open. Jemma peered over her shoulder to see what it was. 

It was a SHIELD ID card, slid into the pouch above a metal disk with the SHIELD logo printed on it. 

“Welcome to SHIELD, Agent Johnson.”

Daisy beamed, eyes flicking between Jemma and Coulson. Jemma barely managed to mutter a congratulations before Daisy’s arms were slung around her neck, squeezing her tightly. 

“Ow.”

“Shit, sorry,” Daisy cursed, dropping her arms. “Thank you, Coulson. I don’t really know what to— Wait. Level One clearance? What can I do with Level One clearance?” 

Coulson smirked. “Inventory. If you do a good job, I predict you’ll move up pretty quickly. You’ve got to earn that Level Two.”

Daisy gaped at his back as Coulson turned to walk back up the stairs, looking equal parts indignant and amused. Fitz trailed after Coulson, rambling protests to the whole situation, as well as ‘compartmentalizing crucial information,’ leaving Daisy and Jemma alone. 

“Well, at least I get to work with you,” Daisy said with a shrug. 

Jemma grimaced. “Sorry, you have to be at least Level Four to get into the lab.”

“What?!?”

Jemma couldn’t hold back anymore and doubled over, laughing raucously at Daisy’s face. She ignored the pulling in her stitches for the time being. It felt like a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders now that she was back in a secure SHIELD facility and Daisy was with her. Every time Jemma would try to straighten up and catch her breath, she would catch Daisy pulling an offended face and burst into fresh peals of laughter. 

“Very funny, nerd,” Daisy grumbled. She stepped closer to Jemma and gently guided Jemma’s chin up so she could press her lips to Jemma’s, silencing her laughter. Jemma still managed to chuckle against Daisy’s lips, but relaxed into her touch. “You’re lucky I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it!! Thanks for reading and coming along on this lovely adventure! Fun fact: this is the first multichapter fic I've ever finished, so go me, I guess? *pops party popper despite being ashamed at my lack of commitment to writing*  
> If you haven't already, I highly suggest listening to the playlist that this is based off (I think I put the link in the notes of the first chapter, let me know if I didn't). The songs really put me in the headspace for this fic and honestly inspired most of the plot points, so check it out.   
> And if anyone has ideas for a sequel/one-shot based on this AU, I'd love to hear them! I love writing in this AU.


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